


Inappropriate Stories

by cordsycords



Series: The STRQ Anthology [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: A healthy amount of both, Fluff and Angst, Includes Spoilers up to and Including Volume 5, Multi, Oh look some smut, On Qrow's part that is, One Shot Collection, One-Sided Relationship, Pre-Series, Team STRQ Era, Unrequited Love, Unresolved Romantic Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-14
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2018-09-17 12:36:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 52,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9323891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordsycords/pseuds/cordsycords
Summary: Before there was RWBY, there was STRQ: a complete mess, a united force, and a broken family. A collection of one-shots, all related but not necessarily in order, pertaining to the adventures of Team STRQ, the coolest team to ever graduate Beacon.





	1. swanky

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you can tell by the summary, this is going to be a one-shot collection about the adventures of Team STRQ. The titles/themes of each chapter will be driven be word prompt which I'm currently getting from a random word generator. However, please feel free to send in a word prompt yourselves if any of y'all are interested.
> 
> How inappropriate these stories will get... well it's too soon to tell. You'd expect with that title, I'd be putting a higher rating, but we'll see....
> 
> Anyways, this first chapter is pretty fluffy, which is perfect to balance out the angstiness of the next chapter.
> 
> Enjoy!

Summer and Tai had a problem. The problem namely being their two stubborn, obstinate, and sometimes just outright irritating sibling teammates who were being their normal stubborn, obstinate, and irritating selves.

Really, they should have seen it coming.

“I can’t believe they refuse to go.” Summer confessed angrily to Taiyang as she stormed through the rows of bookshelves, her teammate strolling behind her with a large pile of books in his hands. Every couple steps, Summer would stop to look at the list of books she needed in her hands, stop in front of the correct shelf to quickly glance through it, find the book she was looking for, and then add it to the pile of half a dozen books she had already picked out. Tai had just started to struggle with the amount of weight in his arms, but decided it was probably a good idea not to complain when his team leader was already on a rampage.

“It’s the ball Tai, the Vytal Festival Ball! It’s the first time we’re gonna be able to see the other teams, the first time they’re gonna see us. And if we go and they don’t, do you know what the other teams are gonna see Tai? Do you?” Summer continued, her speech getting faster and faster as she stewed in her irritation. Tai tried to open his mouth to answer, but she was too quick for him, “They’re going to look at us and see nothing but a divided mess of a team. They’re going to look at us and instantly underestimate us because we’re not as bonded and together as we should be.”

Summer continued up the aisle hastily to another shelf, picked out four books in quick succession, and then added them to the pile. Tai groaned at the added weight.

“Wouldn’t the other teams underestimating us be a good thing, Sum? Strategy wise?” Tai groaned out.

Summer stopped in her tracks, thought about what he had said for exactly five seconds, and then continued in her rampage.

“Maybe,” she acquiesced, she hadn’t thought of that before, but she quickly shook the idea out of her mind, “But wouldn’t it be better if we walked into that room, one unified front of pure badassery and had the competition quaking in their dress shoes, and nicely tailored suits and dresses from fear alone?” She explained, turning around to show a sparkle of pure glee shining in her silver eyes.

“Careful, Sum, you’re starting to sound a bit too much like Raven.” Tai teased.

Summer groaned, rolled her eyes, and returned to her task, “All I’m saying is last year, we were team STRQ: the idiots who couldn’t keep anything together, the ones who almost died on their first real mission, and were most likely to get kicked out of Beacon because of it. But now we’re team STRQ: best team at Beacon and well on our way to compete in the Vytal Festival Tournament to win it all. I just want people to know that we’re serious about this.” She sighed, looking down at her feet.

“We trained through the entire break, Summer, I think they’ll figure it out.” Tai said, peeking his head around the stack of books in his hands to smile at her.

“I know, but we put so much work into making all this a reality, I just want to be able to show how much.”

Tai sighed, “I get it.”

“You do?” Summer turned to him, excitedly.

“Yes.”

“So you’ll help?” She asked, almost to the point of jumping up and down.

“Of course.” He agreed.

Summer squealed as she rushed over to him to wrap her arms around his waist. Unfortunately for them, the amount of books in Tai’s hands had grown to maximum capacity, and Summer’s momentum was enough to knock all of the books, and both she and Taiyang to the ground. As they both lay on the ground, Summer cushioned by Tai’s chest, the other students around the library glared at them with daggers in their eyes. Summer immediately blushed at the embarrassment of it all.

“But if I do, you’re the one who's gonna have to convince Raven.” Tai declared, smirking.

Summer closed her eyes, forehead falling onto Tai’s chest as she groaned.

* * *

“Look man, all I’m saying is it’s gonna be an awesome time. Pretty girls in pretty dresses, handsome boys in nice tuxes if you’re into that, good food, nice music, and all that stuff. If you don’t go, you’re totally going to miss out.” Tai said to Qrow as he followed the other boy through the streets of Vale, looking for a weapons store that sold Qrow’s favoured brand of whetstone.

“I know what you’re doing, and I don’t understand how you think the eccentricities of ‘high society’ is gonna make me want me to go to this stupid dance. I don’t exactly fit into that kind of thing anyways.” Qrow refuted, already clued into what Tai’s mission was from the second the other boy ‘happened upon him’ while wandering through Vale. He stopped in front of the window of a store, stared past inside to see if this was the one he was looking for, decided it was, then went in. Tai followed, to Qrow’s irritation.

“That’s a terrible excuse,” Tai insisted, catching up to Qrow and throwing an arm around his shoulders to stop him from getting away. The shorter boy grimaced in irritation.

“Think of it this way,” Tai continued, spreading his hands out in front of him as if trying to paint a picture, “You, a young man from a tribe of savage savages, rising above his savage ways to mingle in what you call ‘high society’ without anybody knowing it. It’d be like one of those spy movies you like! You could wear coat with tails on, matching bowtie and pocket square. Heck, even a tophat and cane if you can pull it off. You’d look swanky as hell”

Qrow paused for a minute, almost as if he was contemplating Tai’s words, “Swanky, huh?” 

“Swanky.” Tai repeated, pretty sure that he had Qrow hooked.

Qrow shrugged his shoulders, escaping from Tai’s hold, “I guess it could be fun,” Tai pumped his fist in the air in celebration before Qrow could continue, “But Raven has to say yes first. I mean could you imagine my Semblance running wild, without her to stop it, at a swanky event like that? People stepping on toes, drinks spilling, dresses getting ruined. It would be absolute chaos.”

Smirking, Qrow shoved his hands into his pockets and walked toward the back end of the store to look for his whetstone, leaving a dumbfounded Tai behind him.

Seconds later, Tai realised what Qrow was saying, and ran after him, “You’re absolutely screwing with me, aren’t you.”

“Yup.”

“You’re gonna go to the ball? Whether Raven wants to or not?”

“Had me at the coattails.”

“You’re probably gonna laugh the second anybody spills their drink on a girl’s dress?”

“Do you even know me?” Qrow turned to smile at Tai, a sparkle of gleeful immorality in his crimson eyes.

“Awesome. We’ll go get your suit right after this then. Oh man, Summer is gonna be so happy, I wonder how she’s doing with Raven right now…”

Qrow picked the whetstone he wanted to buy, went to the front of the store and paid the shopkeeper as Taiyang continued to ramble. Afterwards, he let Tai drag him to the first formalwear store that they could find, the blond boy chattering the entire way.

* * *

After over a year of knowing her, Summer still didn’t know why she found Raven Branwen so damned intimidating. As she walked up to the third floor of the dorms, down the hallway to the fifth door on the left to team STRQ’s living quarters, she had already come up with twelve different ways to convince her female teammate to come to the ball, and was currently working on a thirteenth. When she reached the door, she raised her hand up to knock on it, realised she didn’t need to do that, then opened the door with an amount of forcefulness she didn’t usually exert, unless confronted with a particularly difficult problem.

As she she opened the door, she quickly found the answer to her question.

While Qrow, Summer, and Taiyang would often use their weekends to go into Vale, study at the library, or get some extra training in, Raven had a very strict cleaning and repair regiment when it came to her weapon. Every weekend, she could be found in the team STRQ living quarters sharpening and inspecting the multiple Dust blades held by Talon’s multi-selector holster. Her inventory of blades had grown from about 7 when she had come to Beacon to three times that much due to a readily available Dust supply she had not had before. Which is why, when Summer walked into her room, she saw 20 Ōdachi-sized blades, volatile and waiting to be sharpened, lined in a grid formation all over the floor. The blades required so much space, that Raven had actually pushed all of their beds to the outer edges of the room.

Intimidating, to say the least.

“Summer, I thought you and Taiyang were at the library for the rest of the day.” Raven spoke from her perch on her bed, scaring Summer and making her jump, “I apologize for the state of the room. Talon required maintenance.”

“Oh, no problem Raven, sorry to interrupt you. I just thought the library was too crowded for my tastes, so I decided to study here if that’s alright?” She blushed, right hand grasping her left wrist in a nervous tic.

“It is your room as well. Do as you please. Just be careful.” Raven stated, going back to sharpen the blade of bright blue Dust in her hands. The room fell back into silence.

“Right…” Summer tiptoed over to her bed where she hauled her backpack off her shoulders, and opened it to let the dozen books inside fall onto her blanket. She then toed off her boots, jumped onto the bed and grabbed a book, wrapped her cloak around her and started to read. The room was quiet, other than the sound Raven’s whetstone working along the edge of the blade in her hands. It was chilly outside that day, so the large window had been closed, and the strong smell of incense that Raven liked to burn when she was alone intermingled with the smell of her favourite green tea. Every couple of words, Summer’s eyes would leave the page and glance to the extremes of her vision to her teammate, who didn’t seem to notice that she was being watched.

Well, at least Summer didn’t think she noticed.

“Summer?” Raven spoke from the silence.

“Yes Raven?” Summer replied, looking up from her book.

“You want to say something.”

“No I don’t.” Summer denied, quite pointedly, going back to her book.

“Yes you do.”

“No, I don’t” Summer repeated without looking up from her book, she was more forceful this time, but still unconvincing.

Raven sighed, “Summer, just get to the point.”

The room was completely silent for exactly 7 seconds, at that point Summer just couldn’t keep it in any longer.

“Why won’t you go to the dance with us!” She blurted without any sense of decorum whatsoever, a bad choice when it came to trying to convince Raven to do anything she didn’t want to do.

Raven opened her mouth to speak, but Summer was too fast for her, “I mean, I know it’s not your thing, but if Tai can convince Qrow to go on the basis of _coattails_ , it can’t be that hard to convince you. And I know you’re not into the swanky ‘high society’ thing and you always turn your nose up at it, but that’s not the point. The _point_ is that if we go together, we present the idea that team STRQ are a unified front, and we are here to _win_ this thing. And could you imagine us walking in there, and people just getting _scared_ of how awesome we are? And I know you would enjoy that because I was telling Tai about it earlier today and _he_ said that _I_ was starting to sound like _you_ and we was totally right and-”

“Summer.” Raven said, interrupting Summer’s rant. She opened her mouth to explain herself, but Summer was too quick. She leapt across the room to Raven’s bed, placing her index finger on her teammate’s lips to prevent her from speaking.

“Do not say no, unless you have a really good explanation. Like if you’re extremely ill and will in two days for example, or your allergies will start working up if you’re in a room with more than a hundred people and every time you sneeze something explodes. Something like that, because anything less than that is not good enough, Raven. I won’t accept it.”

From under Summer’s finger, Raven’s lips opened and closed several times before she could find the words to explain her predicament, “I… I don’t know how to dance.” She stated.

Summer was silent for almost an entire minute, until she suddenly exploded, “That’s it!” She shouted, absolutely stunned by her teammates confession.

“Yes.”

“But… why?”

Raven looked at her in confusion, “I was raised by a tribe of bandits, there weren’t exactly many opportunities for me to learn.” She explained, even though Summer already knew everything.

Summer shook her hands in front of Raven’s face, “No no no no _no_ , I know all about your tragic backstory, and frankly I don’t _care_ , but that’s not what I meant. I mean why do you _care_? You, _Raven Branwen_ , the girl who cut off all six of Deathstalker’s legs on the first day we met, before laughing in it’s face a stabbing it through the eye. _You_ are scared are going to the ball because you don’t know how to dance.” Summer was on the edge of laughter, but kept herself restrained to protect Raven’s pride.

“If I am asked to dance, I will look like a fool. I do not wish to look like a fool, so I will not go to the dance.” Raven explained, going back to sharpening her blade as if to signify that the conversation was somehow over. Unfortunately for her, Summer wasn’t even close to finished.

“That’s stupid. You’re being stupid.”

“What did you say to me?”

“You. Are. Being. Stupid.”

“How dare you?”

“Very easily. You’re being stupid, I’m calling you out.”

“I do not wish to look bad in front of the other teams.”

“You don’t care what anyone else thinks about you.”

"That's not true."

“You don’t care about what _I_ think, you _definitely_ don’t care what _Qrow_ thinks-”

“I wish to end this conversation.”

“Is this about Taiyang?”

“What?” Raven asked, a bit more forcefully than needed, with the tiniest hint of a blush creeping onto her cheeks. Summer smirked, she had Raven just where she wanted her.

“I can teach you to dance.”

“There’s only a week left.”

“I’m sure you must have figured it out by now, but I’m a very good teacher.”

“I don’t have anything to wear.”

“We’ll go get something today. We’ll practice all week. You got this, Raven.”

Raven contemplated for a bit, but Summer already knew her answer, “Fine.”

“Fine.”

“Let’s go right now.”

“Sure.”

“I want a black dress. Floor length. Lace. Gold jewelry.”

“Sounds perfect.”

“Good.”

“Good.”

And with that, both girls nodded to each other and got up from the bed. Summer grabbed her purse while Raven grabbed her coat and within a minute they were out the door, leaving the room in a complete mess behind them for the boys to clean up when they returned in 15 minutes.

* * *

One week later, Taiyang and Qrow were kicked out of their own room, dressed in their suits, so that the girls could change.

“I can’t believe they just kicked us out like that.” Qrow said, continuously banging on the door.

Taiyang shrugged his shoulders from his spot on the floor, “Girls do that, takes ‘em a while.”

Qrow joined him on the floor, making sure that his coattails were under him properly so they didn’t wrinkle, “Still, Raven’s acting as if I’ve never seen her _change_ before.”

Instantaneously, Tai’s face began to redden as the inappropriate image sprang into his mind. He remained silent, hoping that Qrow wouldn’t notice him.

Of course he did.

“Gross, man that’s my sister.” He exclaimed.

“Hey, you brought it up,” Taiyang shouted back, trying to defend himself.

“Doesn’t mean you were supposed to start _thinking_ about it.”

“I’m sorry!”

At this point, both boys were standing up, Taiyang up against the wall with Qrow cornering him in, pointing a finger in his face, “If you try _anything,_ and I mean _anything_.” He warned.

“Hey, I thought it was the older sibling that was supposed to be the overprotective one.” Tai joked, trying to deescalate the situation.

“What can I say, I tend to defy societal norms.” Qrow replied, almost growling under his breath.

“Not you can do much about it anyways. When you have your scythe you’re pretty tough, but without it you're _nothing_.” Tai goaded, not even trying to stop Qrow from punching him now. It was just too much fun to rile him up sometimes.

“You may be the brawler, but I’m pretty scrappy myself, Blondie.”

“Just _try_ it, Birdbrain.”

And just like that, they snapped. Qrow’s fist flung out toward Tai’s head, which he dodged by moving his head to the right. Qrow was stunned for a second, but quickly recovered, pulling his fisted from the hole he made in the wall to take another swing.

“Boys!” Summer Rose’s voice rang loud and clear through the hallway, prompting several other doors to open so that students could peek into the hallway to see what was going on. Qrow’s fist stopped just an inch before Tai’s face.

Summer was livid, “Really? Now? Of all times? What the hell were you fighting about?”

Qrow spoke first, never taking his threatening eyes off of Tai, “Nothing much. Just boys being boys.”

“Exactly Summer,” Taiyang agreed, turning to the girls a bowing before reaching out to grab Raven’s hand and kiss it. She looked at him strangely, raising one eyebrow in amusement, but accepted the gesture anyways.

“Now come, we should be going,” Tai continued, tucking Raven’s arm through his own, and leading her down the hallway, leaving the other two to stare at the couple. Summer turned to look at her partner, who was still looking menacingly at Tai’s back. She placed her hand on his shoulder, shaking him out of his death stare.

“Let’s go, partner. We have a dance to get to.”

“Right.” Qrow quickly bent down to grab his top hat and cane from the floor, then stood up and offered his arm to Summer that same way that Tai did.

“You look good.” Summer said as they walked down the hall together.

“Yeah?”

“Yup. How do you feel?”

“To be honest? I feel pretty swanky. You?”

“About the same.”

Summer’s bright smile was infectious as they walked out of the dorms and across campus, and by the time that Team STRQ has reached the doors to the ballroom, a huge smile was plastered on each of their faces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some headcanons that I have, in no particular order:
> 
>   1. Qrow's and Raven's weapons are named Claw and Talon, respectively. That is, unless RT releases an official name for them and I have go back and change everything because OCD.
>   2. Team STRQ was the Worst Team Ever(TM) in their first year at Beacon.
>   3. Again, unless stated otherwise, Raven's Semblance is used to somehow cancel out Qrow's Semblance so that he can, you know, not mess everything up
>   4. As stated in the one-shot: Qrow is wearing a tuxedo with coattails, and cane, and a tophat because he's classy(TM); Raven is wearing a floor-length black dress, with a laced bodice, and gold jewelry as accent; Taiyang is wearing a navy suit with yellow tie, and yellow pocket square (look it up, it works); Summer is wearing something similar to Ruby's dress. (Do you see the colour-coding here?)
> 

> 
> Thanks for reading! If you liked, please give kudos, or commenting is pretty awesome too!
> 
> You can also find me on tumblr: coreystaves.tumblr.com
> 
> The second chapter is also up, I should be updating on the weekends.


	2. abandoned

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back with angst, enjoy!

Qrow caught up to her two days after she left, in the forest close to the far east coast of Sanus. It’s dusk, and she already had a fire going, sending enough smoke in the sky that he must have seen it and decided it was worth investigation. He transforms in mid air, landing on the other side of the fire, across from where she is sharpening one of her blades. The flames illuminated his grief-stricken face and she spotted bags under his eyes. He must not have slept the entire time she had been gone.

“Brother.” She greeted, concentrating on the blade in front of her.

“You have to come back, Raven.” He pleaded, voice rough with dehydration, “Please come back.”

“I can not” She said.

“Yes you can, just stop whatever you’re doing and come back with me.” 

“No.” She repeated, forcefully this time.

“I don’t understand. Why are you leaving? I thought everything was okay? You were getting better, bonding with Yang, fighting less with Tai, what happened?” Qrow was beside himself, unable to wrap his head around the actions of the one person in his life he knew everything about.

“I was summoned.” Raven replied, unable to look her twin in the eye.

“No-” Qrow shook his head.

“Onyx has perished, and I have been selected as a candidate for leadership.” She explained.

“No you can’t, you can’t go back to them.”

“I am honoured by their decision, and I will to prove myself worthy of the title.” She turned around, trying to end the conversation.

“No. I won’t let you.” Qrow said, taking Claw out from its place on his back and extending it into its scythe form.

“And when have I ever need _your_ approval, brother?” She sneered at him.

“When whatever it is you’re doing is forcing you to run out on your family. On your _daughter_.” He accused.

“And you think that keeping me here will make everything better? If I don’t go, they’ll come for me. How will that be any better for Yang?” She shot back at him, turning around and grasping her hand around Talon’s hilt.

Qrow paused, she was right. She was once again about to turn around and leave, when he spoke up once more, “Raven Branwen, I challenge you.”

She closed her eyes in resignation. The fool.

Qrow continued, “I challenge you for the title of candidate, so that I may become Tribe Leader in your place.” He spoke clearly, without hesitating.

“I accept.”

There was a second of complete stillness before she attacked, leaping over the fire with a bright blue Dust blade in her hand. Qrow blocked her strike with the haft of his scythe before spinning it around in his hands so that the blade was behind her and he could pull it toward him. She ducked just in time to the the blade go over her head, and watched him flip backwards to compensate for the momentum. He then activated the transformation mechanism of his weapon, shifting it back to its broadsword form.

An ultimately bad idea on his part.

They leapt together in a clash of steel and Dust, matching each other blow for blow. In a regular fight, this could go on for quite a while, but Raven had the upper hand. She was well-rested, and had eaten, while Qrow had been running himself ragged to just keep up with her. Soon, he would have to choose between surrender or collapse.

She continued to attack and he stayed on the defensive, until she decided that she needed to give him the upper hand if she wanted to win this. She held back the force of her next blow, so that when Qrow defended against it with greater strength she was forced to take a step back. During the pause, a drew back a second time to attack her, using only one hand to hold his weapon instead of two. Seeing her change, she swung her blade perpendicular to his, catching it against the side instead of the edge. Qrow was caught off guard, loosened his grip, and Claw went flying out of his hands.

Before he could react, she kicked out his knee, forcing him to fall down to the ground on his hands as she pointed Talon at his throat.

“Submit.”

Qrow lifted his head, glaring at her with determination in his eyes, “No, Raven. You’re coming home.” In a last ditch attempt, he transformed, flying into the air faster than she could react. She looked up in the sky for him, confused as to where he went until she felt Qrow’s arms wrapping around her throat and squeezing.

“Drop it.”

“Qrow.” She strangled out.

“ _Drop_ it.” He repeated. She dropped her weapon, bringing her hands up to grasp at the arm around her neck.

“What do you think you’re doing.” She asked, still gasping for breath.

“I’m saving our family.”

“They won’t accept you Qrow, they’ll come for me anyways.”

“No they won’t.”

“They’ll kill you.”

“I don’t care.” He gripped tighter.

“They’ll kill you. Then they’ll come for me anyways, and Yang will be out both her mother _and_ her uncle.” She knows what to say, and it’s enough to make his grip loosen by just a fraction. It’s enough for him to drop his guard. It’s enough for her to send an elbow straight into his gut.

The surprise got her out of his arms so that she could face him, fists raised. He paused for a second, then sent a fist straight toward her face. He had always been so predictable. In the split moment that his fist was flying towards her, she reached out and grasped her hands around his wrist, turning around and kneeling so that her shoulder was beneath his arm.

There are two sounds that she had always hated: the sound of bones breaking, and her brother calling out in pain.

He collapsed to the ground in shock, unable to stop himself from falling down face first as his left arm went to cradle his right. Tears immediately sprang to his face from the pain, and he began to breathe heavily. Above him, Raven watched for a second before she knelt down and reached into his pocket to pull out his scroll, activating the distress signal. She then replaced it, and went around to clean up the campsite. She doused the fire, picked Talon up and attached it to the belt around her waist, then knelt beside her brother, still gasping in pain.

“Raven.” He pleaded, struggling through the tears and pain.

“Shhh, brother,” She comforted, reaching out to stroke her hand through his soft black hair, “I’ll stay with you until they come. You will be safe.”

“Not from you.” He said, gasping between words.

“No, not today. But tomorrow, and the day after that. You’ll see. Everything will be fine.”

“Don’t… believe you. I… need you.” He confessed.

“No you don’t. You’ll be fine without me. Now rest, they will be while.”

She stayed next to her brother for the next couple hours. At some points he was barely conscious, at others he was cursing her through his breath. She never replied, just knelt there, running her hands through his hair, until she could see the lights of the hoverships shining through the night sky. Finally, she bid him goodbye, planted a kiss on his forehead, stood up, transformed, and flew away.

But she stayed nearby, she watched as Summer and Taiyang come to their fallen teammate. She watched as Summer takes off her cloak and wrapped it around Qrow’s shivering body. She watched as Taiyang continuously asked where she had gone, and Qrow pointed into the direction she flew off to. She watched as her partner hung his head in defeat and agony. She watched as Summer placed a comforting hand on his back.

They brought him onto the hovership. It flew off back towards Vale, and she left in the opposite direction, with the knowledge that Qrow would, eventually, be okay.

After all, he had found his family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Raven broke Qrow's arm. You didn't misread that.
> 
> This chapter will probably be part of a mini-series within all these one-shots, dictating the schism of Team STRQ. It's been blatantly stated to us within the show that it was because of Raven that STRQ broke apart. From what we've seen of Raven, it's really not difficult to imagine.
> 
> Of course, throughout this anthology, I will be attempting to consolidate our canon version of Raven with my own headcanon version of her. So, another couple headcanons of mine:
> 
>   1. Raven did not keep her pregnancy a secret from the rest of the team.
>   2. Raven had post-partum depression
>   3. Unlike Qrow, Raven still somehow kept in contact with the tribe while they were at Beacon. She still felt as though she was a part of the tribe. Her ties between her and the tribe were starting to weaken over the years, but they never broke
>   4. The leader of the tribe before Raven was named Onyx
>   5. When a new leader of the tribe is picked, several candidates are chosen, and they have to fight to the death to become leader. You can not decline becoming a candidate.
> 



	3. weapon

Her mother’s bow and arrows sit on a stand in the corner of her dad’s room, on the left-hand side by the bed where her mother used to sleep after tucking her in for the night. Ruby had seen the bow many times over the years, but it wasn’t until recently that she desperately wanted to _touch_ it. 

And it’s _really_ not her fault, Delicate Thorn is just a very pretty weapon. She knows that her dad must maintain it because it’s still in pretty good shape after almost a decade of not being properly used. The metal still sparkles when the sunlight rests upon it in the afternoon, and it achieves its transformation cycle from bow to bladed staff in three seconds flat.

So one day, when Yang and her dad were at Signal, Uncle Qrow was still fast asleep in his room in the attic, and she was therefore effectively alone, she convinced herself that she should at least be allowed to _touch_ it, and maybe that would be enough to satiate her burning curiosity. Of course, it didn’t work that way. Ruby, even if she didn’t know it at the time, was just little too much like her mother to just pick the bow up and put it back down again. In less than a minute, she already had the quiver hoisted onto her shoulder and the bow in hand as she quietly made her way downstairs, through the living room, and outside.

It was later in the afternoon, and she knew that she still had a couple hours before Yang and her dad came home. Being the combat school that it was, Signal Academy let out for the day much later than her regular school did. She was allowed to be home by herself because Qrow was there as well, even though he had been sleeping the day away after returning from a long and exhausting mission that he wouldn’t tell her anything about, instead of actually watching her to make sure she wasn’t doing anything stupid. Which is what she was doing.

Outside, at the front of the house, she decided to pick a tree a few metres away and try aiming at it. Before she used an actual arrow, however, she pulled the drawstring back several times as she tried to get a feel for it. Instantly, she realised that the bow was definitely made for someone a few inches taller than her, as the bottom of the bow would sometimes scrape against the grass if she didn’t hold her hand steady enough. When she let the drawstring go, its reverberations traveled from the bow, down her arm, and through her entire body, and she hadn’t even pulled it back that far. Obviously, the bow was meant for long distance combat, so that one could stay as far away from the fighting as possible until transforming the weapon into a bladed staff if anybody got too close.

She pulled back the drawstring a couple more times, each one farther and farther back, until her right hand was next to her ear and she could feel the string parting the air around it, blowing against her cheek, when she released it. Once again, the reverberation travelled through her entire body, shaking her to the core.

It was _exhilarating_.

At that point, she had decided she was ready. She reached behind her head to grab an arrow from the quiver. Her fingers fumbled for a second, unable to grasp something that she couldn’t see, until she finally felt something against her fingertip. Resolutely, she pulled the arrow from the quiver, notched it, and pulled back the drawstring, all without noticing the bright orange colour of the arrowhead.

She let go of the arrow, watched it fly at an impossible speed towards the tree she had picked as a target, and then was pushed back into the air when it hit the tree and exploded in a large ball of flames. Half a minute later, she was still flat on her back, trying to figure out what had exploded, when her uncle burst through the front door of the house, sword in hand.

“Ruby!” He shouted, searching for her.

“Over here, uncle Qrow.” She called back, pushing herself up from the ground. Her head hurt.

“What the hell happened to you, kiddo?” He asked as he ran over to her, dropping his sword on the ground as he did so. When he approached her, he saw what she was holding in her hand, and came to his own conclusions. Sighing, he sat down on the ground next to her, and began to pick bright yellow dandelions from the ground.

“Haven’t seen that old thing in a while, where’d you get it from, kid?” Qrow asked, although Ruby found no impression of blame in his voice, she couldn’t help but feel as if she was in trouble. She watched as her uncle started to braid three dandelion stems together.

“Dad’s room, it was just sitting there.” She mumbled.

“And you couldn’t help it, could you?” Qrow continued for her, a smirk showing up on her face. Ruby smiled back, shaking her head. Qrow snickered, “You’re exactly like your mom, y’know that?”

“I am?”

“Of course, one look at a weapon as pretty as Delicate Thorn, and she couldn’t help but touch ‘em. Actually deciding to _use_ a weapon she had never set her hands on before, however….” He trailed off.

“I wasn’t gonna _use_ it at first. I don’t think I’m very good with it anyways.” She replied.

“Yeah, well a bow and arrow is a pretty antiquated weapon, not a very popular choice when you can embed a gun into anything you can think of. Besides, you have a couple years to figure all this out, no need to get started now.”

“I know, it’s just that Yang just finished designing Ember Celica and she and Dad are at Signal right now forging it, and I don’t wanna wait another two years for my turn.”

“Eh, no worries kid, you’ll get there. Just no more of this _practicing_ by yourself, okay? You already give me a couple extra wrinkles on my forehead today, and I don’t need to look any older that I already am. So next time, just ask, alright?” He explained, finishing up his dandelion braid, and placing it in her hair behind her ear. After he made sure it would stay, he stood up and walked back towards the house, picking up his sword on his way.

“Does that mean you’re gonna teach me to use Claw, uncle Qrow?” She shouted after him.

“If you ask nicely enough, maybe.” He replied, shouting back at her over his shoulder before going into the house. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was an odd chapter, and went through a lot of rewrites. I was originally gonna do a one-shot split into four sections, each on STRQ, their own personal weapon, and how they use them. Then I realized that the headcanon I originally had for Tai's weapon wasn't as fleshed out yet, and came up with this. A way to look at Summer's weapon, without actually having Summer in the picture. The passing of the torch from mother to daughter, and from uncle to niece.
> 
> A couple of notes about Delicate Thorn:
> 
>   1. It's a longbow that transforms into a bladed staff. I use the words bladed staff, because I couldn't find anything else (glaive, halberd, etc) that actually described what I was thinking of. What I'm thinking of is used by Hawke in the Dragon Age 2 trailer [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlACgYHtWCI). Without all the blood magic, of course.
>   2. As stated, Summer's strategy was to stay far away from the fighting, picking off enemies from afar. If they got too close, she would transform her weapon so she could fight at close range.
>   3. I tried to actually draw how I though Delicate Thorn _would_ transform, then remembered that I can't draw and stopped.
>   4. Whenever I think of Summer using her bow, i think of this guy [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEG-ly9tQGk)
>   5. Summer has arrows with heads forged from dust, which is why explosions sometimes occur.
>   6. The idea of bows and arrows becoming antiquated is just a theory of mine. We've only seen two other people use these kinds of weapons before: Cinder and the girl from team NDGO.
>   7. My headcanon about Summer's Semblance might have something to do with _why_ she uses a bow and arrow.... so stay tuned.
> 



	4. ghost

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Summer's ghost continues to haunt them...

Her ghost comes to Tai when he’s asleep, an ethereal vision of light that shines through the darkness of his nightmares. Summer is perfectly preserved in his dreams, from her short stature, to the tiny dimple that forms on her left cheek when she smiles.

Tonight’s fantastical scenario is a simple one, a vision that he conjures in his head whether he’s dreaming or not. They’re on the couch, in the living room. The girls are gone, away in their second year at Beacon (the school doesn’t fall in his dreams, Ruby stays home, Yang still has her arm). He’s lying down, his head in her lap. She’s carding her fingers through his hair, humming a tune under her breath.

It’s a perfect day.

Summer says something, a faint whisper poking at his mind. He can’t hear her.

She repeats it. A little louder this time. He shakes his head, scrunches up his nose, laughing.

Once more, with feeling, “You need to get up.”

The illusion is ruined. He opens his eyes to see her staring down at him, the youthful face of a woman in her mid-twenties.

“But I’m so comfortable.” He murmurs, reaching up with his hand to push a wayward strand of her hair behind her ear. From there, his hand migrates to cup her cheek with his palm. Her skin is dreadfully cold against his. It’s at times like this when he knows it’s all fake, Summer would have turned her head to kiss his hand by now. This version of her doesn’t react. She’s just a placeholder.

“You know that’s not what I mean.” She says.

He turns his head, looks toward the dirt, “I don’t want to leave.” He whispers.

“You’ve never wanted to leave, but you know that you must.”

“Why?” It’s a stupid question, he knows that answer.

“You have to take care of your daughter.”

“I have to take care of _our_ daughter.” He interjects.

“She’ll want pancakes for breakfast.” She states, changing the subject. She shifts her head so instead of looking down at him, she’s looking towards the door, leading outside to the blinding sunlight.

“She always wants pancakes.” He jokes, remembering earlier days, when Yang was young but no less fierce, and would bang her hands on the table demanding pancakes for breakfast until her parents complied.

“You do make good pancakes.”

“You made better ones.” He still uses her recipe, and Yang always says that they're fine, but he can’t help but taste the difference.

“But that doesn’t matter anymore.” Summer states plainly.

“No. I guess not.”

It’s the hardest thing he has to do, but he does it every night. He pulls himself from her embrace, and stands up to go to the front door. His feet feel like weights, pulling him down so that he can return to her and stay.

But she’s not here for that. She’s not here to provide him comfort, or to tell him that everything is going to be fine, remind him that they'll meet again in the next life.

She is there to help him move forward.

\--

The ghost comes to her when she’s awake, a faceless phantasm at the corner of her eye. A white hood covers its face, much like her own mask covers hers. She perches as her namesake in the branches of trees, watching the world turn around her. The ghost is always there, staring at her, judging. Sometimes it gets to the point where she can’t ignore it anymore.

“What now, Summer?” She asks it, while watching over her brother and the children he’s travelling with. His condition is getting worse, and she knows that by the next day he’ll be in no condition to travel.

The ghost doesn’t answer, it never answers. But Raven has never needed it too. She has so many memories of Summer Rose that she can recreate her voice within her mind, can still remember her chastising tone when Raven was doing something that didn't align with Summer’s world view, which was often.

 _Why aren't you helping them?_ She would say.

“You know the rules.” Better than anyone, Raven would say.

_And they apply to your own brother?_

“I’ve helped him too many times to count, and yet he’s given nothing in return. Let this be his lesson.” She explains, barely believing her own logic even though she would never admit it to herself.

_He will die from this._

“There is a high probability, yes.”

_Always speaking in maybes and likelihoods. It helps you to run away._

That hurts, and Raven sends a scathing look towards the ghost. It does nothing, just like it always has.

_If there is the probability that someone will die without your intervention, then there is the probability that they will die with your intervention. You know how it works, yet you blame yourself anyways._

“Quiet, Summer.”

_Who me? I didn't say anything._

The ghost is still there at the edges of her vision, but her mental image of Summer has gone silent. Below her, Qrow starts to stumble, and the children decide that it would be a good idea to make camp for the night.

She ruffles her feathers, spreads her wings, and follows.

\--

Her ghost comes to him when his mind is teetering between the point of consciousness and unconsciousness, a silent spectre of neither benevolence nor cruelty. When he sees her he knows he’s either drunk, or dying. Currently, he’s the later, lying on a stretcher because he can't move from the neck down and he’s gone delirious. She walks beside him, her left hand grasping one of his, but he can't feel it.

“Sum-mer.” He manages to say, choking out her name through his tightened throat. She looks down at him, not with pity but with regret. 

“Summmmm-er.” He repeats. He can’t stop looking at her.

 _Who is he talking to?_ Someone asks, a muted jumble of words that he just barely can piece together. They don't seem important.

 _My mother._ An answer. He suddenly stops moving, and is placed down on the ground. Two other faces appear in his vision, but he can't focus on them.

_Talking to dead people, that’s not a good sign, right?_

She’s not dead, she’s right here, looking down on him. That is, until her gaze shifts from looking at him, to one of the other faces hovering over him. The one with the matching silver eyes and dark red hair. They look so much alike that it kills him. 

Right, Ruby.

Summer’s eyes return to his, and he already knows what she’s trying to say. He tries to nod his head, “Keep… word.” He strangles out, and Summer smiles at him. She turns around and he watches her leave from the corner of his eye, figure blurring as she walks out of the edge of his vision.

His vision is blurring once more, and his grasp on reality slips further into la-la-land. But his determination is still there, and he is determined _not_ to die even if he can’t do much about it.

Besides, he has a promise to keep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So.... this isn't pre-series. This actually takes place over the last couple episodes, if you didn't notice. This one also went through a couple rewrites. It used to be shorter, for one, only one paragraph per character, to explain their relation to Summer Rose after her death, and how she impacted the lives of her lover, friend, and partner.
> 
> I thought it would be more interesting if I expanded on each paragraph, and set it in the current time-period to show that Summer still effects them. Also angst.


	5. dominate

Ultimately, it should have been a much easier decision to make, but Summer would have been truly annoyed if anyone described her as anything less than thorough. So, instead of just stating her decision outright, her team waited for her as she crowded their room with charts, pros and cons lists, and strategical diagrams for each possible pairing that team STRQ could have sent to the second round of the Vytal Festival tournament.

It took her three hours to come to the one undeniable conclusion: the twins would be the ones to fight.

She announced her decision just a few minutes before midnight, after three hours of almost complete silence (almost unheard of in the STRQ dorm room) while her team let her do what needed to be done to make sure it was the _right_ decision. After she did announce it, while standing on top of her desk to make sure they were all listening to her, Taiyang let out an exasperated “Finally” before Qrow offered Raven an enthusiastic fist bump that she immediately declined. Within ten minutes they were all asleep, leaving Summer to get into her pajamas and ready for bed by herself, in the dark, with only the flashlight on her scroll to illuminate the room.

As always, thoroughness won in the end. She spent the next couple days attached to the two siblings, eager to remind them of strategies and team attacks that she had thought of in between bouts of not-so-deep sleep. By the third day, it was Qrow who had to sit her down, remind her that everything was going to be fine, and tell her that she really needed to get some sleep before she started to scare him.

The next day was the day of the fight. She had been well-rested, but no less nervous, and it wasn’t until about ten minutes before the fight began when she realised that there was no reason to be. She and Taiyang bid the twins good luck before they went to find their seats, and the two of them looked more in tune than she had ever seen them before.

The only way she could even begin to describe it was frightening.

She realised that she had seen them fight together maybe once or twice, and only against Grimm, never against another person. Their sparring classes at Beacon favoured pitting pairs of partners in a team against one another, so Summer had seen Qrow and Raven fight _against_ one another (a sight to behold in and of itself) but never _with_ one another. It was ten minutes before their fight that Summer realised that the later was probably their natural state. They enjoyed fighting one against the other, as any pair of siblings would, but fighting with one another was how they were taught, how they were _raised_ to be. Two halves of one unifying whole.

Up in the stands, she heard the announcer call out the names of the fighters, starting with the two kids from Shade, “And next we have Absinthe Delilah and Cerbera Odelle of Team ACYD from Shade versus Qrow and Raven Branwen of Team STRQ from Vale.”

“Team STRQ made quite an impression in the qualifier rounds, and seem to be the current favourite to win, despite their inexperience against upper-year contenders.”

“In the previous round, the Branwen siblings chose not to reveal their Semblances, so we’ll be waiting on the edges of our seat to see if they use them to win this match. However, we won’t learn anything until we start the match, so let’s see what the configuration of the field will be!”

Down in the ring, the two pairs stood across from each other, the Shade kids on Summer’s left, and Qrow and Raven on her right. She watched as the four quarters of the field open to reveal their state: forest, desert, anti-grav, and volcano. The announcer started the countdown, and suddenly the match began.

Unable to prevent herself from doing so, Summer’s mind immediately started analyzing the other pair’s strategy, which clearly began with trying to get her two teammates away from each other, so that the other two could face them one-on-one. The twins, however, were having _none_ of it. As soon as either of them was separated, they would make it their goal to get back to one another as quickly as possible. It ended up so that the twins were fighting their respective opponents back to back so that they could still utilize each other, but their opponents could not.

Although Qrow and Raven were trying to control the battle, they were still fighting on the defensive. Qrow had stuck to using his broadsword instead of his scythe, which was much easier in the extreme close combat he was in with Cerbera and her brass knuckles. Raven hadn’t even brought out any of her Dust blades yet, using Talon’s sheath to block the attacks from Absinthe’s twin daggers. It took a second for Summer to realise that the twins weren’t being overwhelmed, they were just being patient.

Summer looked toward the holo screens that had been placed all around the stadium and found one that had been looking at Raven, over the shoulder of her opponent. As always, it was difficult to see when she was actively trying to use her Semblance, mainly because it was always on anyways. But, at times she actually focused on the probabilities passing through her mind, the space between her eyebrows began to crease and her eyes turned a deeper shade of red. She was looking for something to be affected by Qrow’s Semblance, so she could turn the tide of the battle.

And suddenly, it happened. Raven blocked an attack from Absinthe, who’s footing wasn’t enough to compensate for the return blow, causing him to stumble back. In the instant he was stunned, the two siblings switched places, with Qrow transforming his weapon into scythe form, and Raven drawing a blade made of flame Dust. Their blows against each of their opponents sent Absinthe and Cerbera flying back several metres, each one losing a considerable amount of Aura, while the siblings’ Aura was still relatively high. Then they went full offensive, pushing the Shade kids to opposite sides of the field: Raven and Cerbera to the forest, Qrow and Absinthe to the anti-grav.

As Raven pushed Cerbera further into the depths of the trees, the only thing that could be seen from their fight were the after-effects of Raven’s arsenal of Dust blades. Arcs of fire, ice, and lightning flew over the treetops like fireworks, receiving many exclamations of awe from the crowd as Cerbera’s Aura slowly diminished. Unable to see much, Summer’s attention turned to Qrow, whose Semblance was reaping havoc on Absinthe as Qrow lead her on a merry chase through the field of floating platforms in the air. She stumbled and tripped almost every time she tried to land. Once, she didn’t push off hard enough into a jump and was left dangling off the edge of a platform, quickly scrambling up before Qrow had a chance to knock her off. He made her chase him until they were on the highest platform, a couple stories up from the ground. It was smaller than all the others, and a fall from it without a proper landing would surely deplete either opponent's’ Aura.

Of course, that's what Qrow had been counting on. The weight of his scythe was sometimes too much for Absinthe to handle with just her blades. She was pushed closer and closer to the edge of the platform until she was finally able to get the drop on Qrow in the middle of one of his attacks. Summer gasped as Qrow was kicked right in the stomach with enough force to send him flying off the edge of the platform. Summer closed her eyes, unable to watch, waiting for the inevitable announcement that Qrow’s Aura level had dropped too low for him to continue in the fight.

But it never came.

Instead she heard Taiyang shout in excitement next to her, echoed by the crowd from all around the stadium. She slowly opened her eyes, to see that Qrow was still standing. While he had been tossed back, he was able to stab his scythe into the ground, slowing himself down. Afterward, the scythe’s blade was still embedded into the platform, while it’s snath hung over the edge, with Qrow still hanging on to it. Summer watched, open-jawed, as Qrow flipped onto his weapon, balancing on it as he walked back toward the platform. He grabbed it from the ground and got back into fighting stance, an insufferable smirk on his face that just begged for someone to slap it off of him.

It was Absinthe’s last straw. She rushed forward, daggers raised. Qrow didn’t even try to deflect or block, he just stepped to the side. The two daggers passed inches in front of his face, followed by the incredulous form of Absinthe Delilah as she flew off the platform, unable to stop her own momentum. Due to her surprise, she wasn’t able to use her landing strategy properly to slow or stop her fall, and her descent ended with her on the ground, Aura completely depleted.

Only seconds later, Cerbera went flying out of the forest, a smiling Raven trailing behind her.

And with that, the twins had won.

The entire stadium exploded, as Summer felt a smile begin to erupt onto her face. Next to her, Taiyang had jumped up from his seat in celebration. She didn’t even notice him until he took her hand, lifting up from her seat and then into his arms as he spun her around in the air. Down below, Qrow and Raven helped their opponents up from the ground and shook their hands, thanking them for the match. Absinthe and Cerbera then walking off the field, leaving Qrow and Raven to bask in their glory. They grasped each other’s hand and bowed, earning another raucous round of applause and cheers from the stadium.

Too excited to contain herself, Summer grabbed Tai’s hand and pulled him along behind her, leading him towards the stairs so that they could go down and congratulate their friends.

Team STRQ was moving on to the finals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, STRQ's first Vytal Festival Tournament as the underdogs. Qrow implies that STRQ was pretty well known when they were younger, and it's probably because they were so damned _memorable_. Anyways, this is the doubles round. Their qualifier's round went similarly as well. The single rounds, however.... well we'll get to those soon.
> 
> Some notes, because I can't help but talk about my headcanons:
> 
>   1. The team they're fighting is team ACYD from Shade Academy. I'm trying to stick to the colour rule because it adds a bit of a challenge to writing. The team name is referring to the delightfully disgusting shade of green called "acid green". I also decided to name each member of the team after something that is toxic to humans:
>     1. Absinthe Delilah: named after the alcoholic spirit Absinthe, noted for its pale green colour. It was also rumoured to cause hallucinations, probably because it has an alcohol content of 45 - 73%.
>     2. Cerbera Odelle: named after _cerbera odollam_ , otherwise known as the suicide tree. It has dark green leaves and a bright white flower. The reason for its English name is kind of creepy, you can read about it on its Wikipedia page.
>     3. Daphne DuMort: named after the daphne genus of shrubs, noted for their red or yellow berries Also a reference to author Daphne Du Maurier, who was known for seldom having happy endings to the stories she wrote.
>     4. Yew Taxus: named after _taxus baccata_ , otherwise known as English yew, common yew, or the graveyard tree. The word yew apparently used to refer to the colour brown, and _baccata_ is latin for _bearing red berries_. 
>   2. I reference Raven's Semblance here, and I'd like to clarify. I like the idea of Raven being an equal and opposite force to Qrow, so I thought her Semblance could be being a good luck charm to counteract his bad luck. But then we've also seen that she's been able to predict things that are going to happen, so I've come up with something else. Raven's Semblance is the prediction of possibilities, which is equal and opposite to Qrow's adjustment of possibilities. I haven't really written out how exactly it all works, but I'll probably flesh it out in later chapters.
>   3. After seeing Qrow's fight with Tyrian, I've come to the conclusion that he has incredibly good balance.
> 



	6. hangover

The drinking started when Raven left, but nobody really noticed until months later. Taiyang was in mourning, barely able to function after losing her, sometimes unable to get out of bed in the morning. He had a 3-month-old daughter that didn’t know what was going on but still could sense that something was wrong. While Taiyang worked through everything, Summer was the one to step up. The one who decided to start taking care of Yang full-time, at least until Tai got back up on his feet.

Which left Qrow by himself.

Not at first, though. At first, he stayed with Summer and Tai, in what was once the Xiao Long-Branwen residence, while his broken arm healed. Within days, every single piece of memory of his sister had been completely removed, from her teapot with its matching set of mugs to the team picture that used to hang over the mantle. It was like Raven had never existed.

He did everything a good uncle should. He played with Yang whenever Summer was too tired. He cleaned the dishes without being asked. He slept on the uncomfortable couch, letting Summer have the guest room, without complaint. And if he couldn’t sleep, because of the pain in his arm or other types of pain not felt, then the kitchen was only twelve steps away and he knew which cabinet Summer stored the liquor in.

It took five weeks for his arm to heal, and another three days for his Aura to replenish back to full strength. Over the next week, his Semblance was acting up all over the place, wreaking havoc breaking glasses, stubbing toes, and almost hurting Yang in an accident he’d rather not talk about. It’s the last thing that he remembers before the night Summer came down to the living room after both Xiao Long’s were asleep. He was still awake, staring up at the ceiling until he saw her quietly walking down the stairs. She was dressed in her pajamas, but still had her cloak wrapped around her shoulders.

“Hey, Sunflower.” He greeted, sitting up and moving to one side of the couch to make room for her. He gathered up his blankets and wrapped them around himself, covering the top half of his body.

“Hey, Qrow.” She replied, sitting down in the space he made for her. Looking at her close up, he could tell that she was tired. Her shoulders were hunched over, her eyes only half-open.

“You doing okay, Sum?” He asked, almost hesitantly. It had been a while since they had done this, been alone for any amount of time without being interrupted.

The room was silent, Summer unable to answer for a considerable amount of time. When she finally spoke, it was to say the one question that had been on everyone’s mind ever since that night, “How could she _do_ this to us?” Summer spat out, staring ahead of her into nothing.

“Summer-” He started to say, but she interrupted.

“I mean, she just _left_. Gone, in the middle of the night, without explanation. Without looking back at her friend, or her brother, her partner, not even her own damned _daughter_. And she must have known what it would do to us, but she didn’t even give a damn, which leaves me wondering if everything she ever did and said was all just a _lie_. And I want to hate her for it but I can’t because-” Summer stopped, unable to stop the tears from falling down her cheeks. Her hands were clenched along with her eyes as she tried to calm herself down.

“Because she’s your sister.” He continued for her, sighing. For the first time since she sat next to him, she turned to look at him, eyes still welling with teardrops.

“Oh Qrow,” she gasped, hand flying to her mouth, “I’m so sorry. Look at me coming to _you_ to complain about everything, and I haven’t even asked how you’re doing, oh Gods I’m a terrible friend.” She cradled her head in her hands.

“Hey it’s alright,” He replied, reaching out a hand to rub her back, “We’re all pretty high-stress right now. No need to stop getting everything off your chest just because I’m going through my own shit.” He comforted her, which lead to her completely breaking down, turning into his embrace. She tucked her head into his chest, in the space under his neck, and brought her legs up onto the couch so that they were thrown over his lap. He accepted her into his arms, wrapping her in the blankets he had around his shoulders. They sat like that for several minutes before she finally spoke once more.

“I don’t know what’s worse,” She whispered into his chest, “That I want to hate her for leaving, or that I’d completely forgive her if she _just came back_.”

There she went, breaking his heart again.

He didn’t respond. He tried to but found that he couldn’t find the right words. Instead, he continued to rub her back while she cried into his chest, her tears dropping onto his bare skin. He continued until she stopped crying, and they were left sitting together in the silent night. Finally, she removed herself from him, quietly thanked him, and went back up the stairs to her room. He watched her every step of the way, unable to tear his eyes from her.

Afterward, it wasn’t hard to make his way into the kitchen, find his favourite bottle of whiskey, and finish it. He passed out while still at the table, his head pillowed by his arms, the empty bottle of whiskey on its side in front of him.

The next day, he woke up before everyone else, early enough that the sun was just peeking over the horizon. His head ached, the pain getting worse when he turned the light on, and he could smell the stench of alcohol coming off of his own breath. His back hurt from being hunched over all night.

An hour later, he was sitting at the kitchen table, eating breakfast. He had made sure to brush his teeth twice that morning, so he didn’t smell like alcohol anymore. His headache was still there, but he tried his best to conceal it. Taiyang sat across from him, mechanically eating a bowl of fruit. Summer was standing up, Yang in her arms as she tried to give the feisty infant her bottle.

Just another day in the Xiao Long household. It was enough to make up his mind for him.

“I’m gonna go find her.” He blurted out to the silent kitchen, before shoving another spoon of cereal into his mouth. He looked at his two friends, both staring back at him with incredulous eyes.

“I’m gonna find her, and bring her back.” He repeated, resolute in his decision.

Tai was the one to break the silence, “Really?” He asked, a small spark appearing in his bright blue eyes. It was the first time Qrow had seen that spark in a very long time.

With that, his decision was made.

\--

Surprisingly, it wasn’t Summer or Tai who finally figured out that he was spending most of the night drowning his emotions in the bottom of a bottle. Instead, it was Glynda.

He had spent almost two months wandering the forests of Anima, looking for places where the tribe had settled before, in hope of finding them there again. But as always, Raven was probably just one step ahead of him, weighing her odds and probabilities to find the right place to go where he couldn’t follow.

Summer and Tai still kept in touch. Sending him updates on how life was going back home in Patch. According to Summer, Tai was getting back into the swing of things, returning to his job at Signal, and spending more time with Yang. She sent Qrow pictures of the father and daughter together, as well as videos of Yang when she started crawling around the house, Tai following her around like a hawk. Tai would ask Qrow for updates on if he had found Raven yet, but Qrow had stopped replying with anything substantial weeks ago.

The search had started to become futile, and the only thing that kept him going was the inevitable disappointment he would face from his friends if he came back empty-handed. So he kept going, until one day when he was called back. Not by his friends, however, but by his former headmaster. The message from Ozpin was simple:

_Come back. We need to talk._

He returned to Vale as quick as he could, without even sending a message to Tai or Summer that he was coming back. Instead, he arrived in Vale, found a bar, and stayed there until he got kicked out. Then he found a hotel and got a room for the next week.

The day afterward, his hangover was bad, and this time he did nothing to pretend otherwise. He found himself walking along the paths of Beacon Academy campus for what felt like the first time in years, but had really been only a couple of months. He walked over to the CCT Tower, went into the elevator, and asked it to take him to Ozpin’s office. Once there, he walked out of the opened elevator doors to find everyone else was already there.

The three other Academy’s headmasters, Glynda, and Oz stared at him he walked in, “Ah, good of you to join us, Qrow. Please take a seat.” Ozpin said, gesturing to a chair directly to his left. Qrow went to sit down. To be honest, he didn’t know what the meeting was supposed to be about, or why he’d been asked to come without Taiyang or Summer since they also knew about Ozpin’s little secret society. Either way, he sat in the meeting, zoned out of the actual conversation, until Ozpin called his name.

“And Qrow, any news on our wayward bird?” Ozpin asked, everyone, turning to look at him.

“Huh?” Qrow said, ever so eloquently.

“Your sister? Have you found her whereabouts yet?” Ozpin clarified. Qrow had no idea how Ozpin knew anything about his sister, let alone the fact that Qrow was searching for her.

“No,” Qrow replied, narrowing his eyes at Ozpin.

“That’s too bad,” the Atlas Academy headmaster chimed in, “This is the girl you were talking about earlier, Ozpin, the one with the Semblance of foresight?”

“Indeed, General Steele.”

“Heh, it’s a shame you couldn’t bring her back into the fold, Mr. Branwen. Her Semblance would have been most… useful.” The general said as Qrow bristled at being referred to by his last name, “And what of your other former teammates, Ms. Rose and Mr. Xiao Long? I seem to remember Ms. Rose also having a... similarly valuable trait.”

“They’re at home, on Patch,” Qrow said, trying not to seethe with rage and absolutely failing.

“So what, they’ve abandoned our cause? Do they not understand what’s at stake?”

“They’re taking care of my niece.”

“You’re _niece_?”

“ _Yes_.” Qrow bit back.

The general sneered, turning back to the rest of the group, “ _This_ , my friends, is why I voted _against_ putting the fate of our world into the hands of mere _children_. First, the Branwen girl gets pregnant, then the other two are left to deal with what came out of it. Now, we are stuck with the _wrong_ twin; the one with the Semblance of bad luck instead of something more _useful_.”

It had been a while since Qrow lost his temper, and he didn’t know whether to blame it on the alcohol still coursing through his system, or the humongous pompous asshole known as General Steele. Either way, his fist connected with the other man’s face, which sent him flying three meters across the room. Completely shocked by what just occurred, the general couldn’t even get up before Qrow walked over him, picked him up by his necktie, and growled into his ear.

“You insult my team any further, _General_ , you’re going to see just how much bad luck I can cause.” It was an empty threat, but the general didn’t need to know that. With that, Qrow dropped the general back onto the floor and walked back toward the elevator.

“Thanks for the invite, Oz. It’s been fun.” He grumbled over his shoulder as he went in and the doors closed behind him. Seconds later as he turned around to look the other way, he was pushed against the wall by another person.

It was Glynda.

He watched as she moved in closer to him, took a whiff of his breath, then leaned back in disgust, “You’re drunk.” She stated a look of obvious disappointment and disgust written on her face.

“Oh, really? I couldn’t tell.” He said. She grunted and pushed him back toward the wall. He stumbled.

“What is wrong with you?”

“Me? Absolutely nothing. You, however, need to find a new place to store your riding crop.” He laughed to himself.

Glynda sighed, “She’s been gone for months, Qrow.”

“Aw, Goodwitch, I didn’t know you cared.” He stated, drily.

She sighed once more, shaking her head this time, “I’ve never figured out what Ozpin saw in you. I’ve found you annoying and irresponsible ever since you came to Beacon. Taiyang wasn’t any better, but he seems to have grown after having Yang. Your sister was a good student, and she took everything seriously, yet in the end, she had her own ambitions that came first. Summer was always the best of you.”

“There a point to this heart to heart? I might shed a tear, Goodwitch.”

“I always wondered why Ozpin chose _you_ to confide in, chose you to sit at his left side instead of all the others, and I finally figured it out: you’re too damned loyal.”

They stood silent, looking into each other’s eyes as the elevator came to a halt, and opened its doors. With that, Qrow walked out, leaving Glynda behind him.

“You should clean up your act, Qrow!” She shouted at him, “You have a family to take care of.”

“Tit for tat, Goodwitch. I get clean, you find a new place to store that riding crop.” He shouted back, smirking to himself.

He didn’t take her advice.

That night he went to the same bar he went to the night before. Six shots of whiskey later, he was seeing double, and still asking for one more. Fortunately, the barman had cut him off at that point. In later years, he could never really tell what had happened to him after that point, through the rest of the night. But the next morning, he was home, sleeping away in the guest bedroom of Tai’s house on Patch, when he was awakened by the screeching cry his young niece, piercing his ears and sending a sharp arch of pain through his head.

He opened his eyes and closed them one again when the light increased the pain of his headache.

“Ow.” He mumbled, pitifully. Yang continued to shriek in Summer’s arms, who was sitting on a chair next to the bed.

“Sh-Sh-Shhhh,” Summer soothed the little girl, “It’s alright, Yang. Look who’s awake! It’s your uncle, waking up just to say hello.”

Qrow slowly reopened his eyes, “Pretty cruel way to wake up a guy, Sunflower.” Qrow grumbled, his voice low and raspy. He looked over to see Yang squirming in her arms.

“Yes but you deserve it,” Summer said, pitching her voice up higher, “Doesn’t he Yang, your stupid uncle Qrow deserved it.” Yang screeched once more, and Summer sighed, “I’m actually surprised you were able to sleep that long, she’s been like this all morning.” She shook her head, stood up, and held Yang out in her arms towards Qrow, who hesitantly took his irritated niece. Almost immediately, Yang quieted down, as she stared, completely entranced, into her uncle’s eyes.

Summer walked around the room, continuing to talk, “I swear, there’s something with you Branwen’s that makes her calm down. Used to be the same with Raven, I’d spend hours with Yang trying to calm her down, but one second in her mother’s arms and she was _fine_.” Qrow knew better not to say anything, so he continued to stare at his niece, and held out a finger for her to grasp. A few seconds later, Summer returned to his bedside, with a glass of water in one hand, and a bottle of ibuprofen pills in the other.

“Open,” She said, unscrewing the bottle of pills and placing one on his tongue, she then held out the water, “Drink.”

He took it and drank the entire glass. Summer returned to her seat, putting her head in her hands and sighing deeply, “Look at us, Qrow, we’re a mess.”

“We’ve always been a mess.” He reminded her.

“But not like _this_ , Qrow. Sure, we had our spats and grievances with each other when we were at Beacon, but at least we were together. At least I wasn’t worrying every single day if my partner was _dead_ or not. That is until _Glynda_ of all people called me to say that you weren’t dead, just getting shitfaced drunk at a place called the Crow Bar, and I’d probably find you there.”

“I liked the name.” He joked.

“Now’s not the time, Qrow.” Summer said, her voice strained, “Tai just got back up on his feet, and I thought that everything was fine, but now I have to deal with _you_.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m not angry with you. I’m angry with myself. I spent all my energy looking after Tai and Yang, and I didn’t notice that my own _partner_ was in distress. Or maybe I _am_ angry with you, mostly because you wouldn’t fucking tell me that there was something wrong.”

Qrow shivered, Summer swearing was a very rare event, and it revealed just what her state of mind was like right then, “So what now?”

Summer sighed, raising her head so she could look Qrow in the eyes, her silver eyes glittering with determination, “ _Now_ , you’re in for the worst week in your life, Branwen. The only thing you’ll be drinking over the next few days is water, so I’ve taken the liberty of throwing all the liquor in the kitchen down the drain. You’ll also be eating three square meals a day because I know how you take care of yourself in the field, which is to say, not at all. Finally, when you’re back in tip top shape, we’ll be training together until _I_ say you’re fit to go back into the field. Deal?”

Like there was any other option, “Deal.”

Summer smiled, for the first time since he had woken up, “Good. Now hand her over. You reek, and you need a shower. Breakfast is in twenty minutes. If you don’t eat it all, I have a punishment lined up that fits the crime. I’ll give you a clue, it starts with vacuuming.”

Qrow handed Yang to her, who had fallen asleep in his arms, over. And with that, Summer marched out of the room, head held high.

He was lucky to have her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, this one is a doozy. 
> 
> It's the longest chapter I've written so far, and it was almost longer than this. Obviously, we know that this isn't the end of Qrow's negative relationship with alcohol, but this is just the first part of the lengthy tale. I decided to leave it here because the original length of this chapter would have taken place over a timeline of 6+ years, which might have taken away from other future one-shots. Who knows, I might write a sequel/continuation/part 2 to this chapter in the future.
> 
> As always, some notes:
> 
>   1. Summer was the one that held this mess of a team together and turned it into the legend it was. Even after Raven left, Summer was still trying to do so.
>   2. Yay, Glynda makes an appearance, along with Ozpin. Knew they'd show up sooner of later. Fun fact: she was my favourite character when I first watched the show. In my little mind, she is two years older than the STRQ crew and knew them while she was at Beacon. She also stole their win in the first Vytal Festival they competed in, but that revelation is for a later date.
>   3. Where _does_ she store her riding crop?
>   4. I decided before I started writing this that neither Summer nor Tai would figure out Qrow's drinking problem. They were both too busy with each other, and with Yang, to see it. Qrow's also a sneaky bastard who doesn't like telling the people he loves that he's in pain.
>   5. Ah, General Steele. He was written to be an asshole. I needed someone to piss Qrow off, and Ironwood is still too young to be a general yet, so he isn't in the Ozlumminati. Their.... interesting relationship is being planned for another one-shot later down the road. Here's a hint: they've known each other since their second year at their respective academies.
>   6. Qrow's loyalty is pointed out in this one, and I believe it to be one of his defining traits. He seemed to be as close to Ozpin as Glynda was, and definitely closer than Ironwood was. Even after Ozpin has "died", Qrow is still following his direction.
>   7. Team STRQ ordered from who can drink the most alcohol and not get completely hammered, to the least: Qrow, Summer, Raven, Taiyang.
>   8. Also, Yang recognises that Qrow's eyes are the same as her mom's.
> 



	7. haircut

Logically, there was no way that a man with the height and build of Taiyang Xiao Long should be afraid of a 5-year-old kid that just barely came up past his knees. To anyone that knew Tai and his daughters, however, the fear was understandable. Tai’s eldest was, as her uncle described her, a firecracker. Yang ran, shouted, and cartwheeled her way through life, a flash of bright yellow that produced her own light, constantly followed by the shadow of her little sister.

It had been Summer to bring up the subject at first. They were in bed when she had pointed out the fact that Yang’s hair was getting too long for her to tame it, and something would need to be done. Taiyang, being halfway to sleep already, had mumbled in lame agreement and quickly dozed off.

His negligence came to bite him in the ass a week later.

As a skilled Huntsman with useful abilities, Summer wanted to go back on missions as soon as the girls were old enough to be left with only their father to take care of them. It had been a lengthy discussion that turned into a lengthy argument, that had eventually ended in Summer putting her foot down and Taiyang conceding to her, just as most arguments in the Xiao Long-Rose household ended. That had happened just after Yang’s fifth birthday two months ago, and Summer had been going on missions ever since then. Some by herself, and others with Qrow that she was sent on by Ozpin. None of the missions was more than a week long, and whenever she came back she would make sure to stay home for at least a week before leaving again. It was a good system.

So, a week after Summer pointed out that Yang needed to have her haircut, she went out on a mission with Qrow. Three days long, investigating a village on the east side of Sanus that had recently been destroyed. As always, she left early in the morning before school started so she could say goodbye to the girls. She bent down to hug them, planting multiple kisses on each of their cheeks as they giggled. Then she got up to hug Tai, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and standing on her tiptoes to kiss him on the lips. The girls exclaimed their protest at their parents’ personal display of affection, and Qrow raucously joined in, only to be silenced by a glare from Tai over Summer’s shoulder. The hug ended with Summer holding Tai’s hand, covertly handing him a small, folded up piece of paper. She let go, and he placed it in his pocket to eventually be forgotten.

In hindsight, probably not a good idea.

He spent the next two days in relative peace. Which really meant that he spent the next two days slightly unhinged without Summer to help him to keep his two daughters in check. But, at the end of the day, if he could get the both of them to go to bed, even if it required multiple bedtime stories to do so, then everything would be okay. That was at least until the last day when Summer was fated to return just around dinner time and he finally remembered the scrunched up piece of paper he had left in his pocket. Chuckling to himself at his forgetfulness he unfolded the piece of paper, expecting to find some sort of cute message that Summer wrote him. Instead, he found a message wrote in bright red ink, that instantly turned his face white with fear as he read it:

_Give Yang a haircut!!!!!!!_

With four words scratched onto a crumbled up piece of paper, Tai began to panic. He had about two hours before Summer and Qrow returned and the girls were outside, most likely covered in dirt by now as they had been running around for quite a while. Sighing, he steeled himself and walked over to the door to call the girls in.

“Yang, Ruby, it’s time to come inside, girls.” He yelled at the two girls running around the yard.

Yang stopped in the middle of chasing Ruby, “But Daaaaad.” She complained, shouting back twice as loud.

“Now, Yang.” He repeated. She stuck her tongue out at him, but ran over anyways, with her little sister trailing behind her. Ruby toddled straight to her dad, sticking her arms out to tell him to pick her up. He did so, pressing a kiss to her cheek as she giggled.

“Food time, daddy?” She asked.

“Not yet, sweetpea. Daddy needs your help with something.”

“Help?”

“Yeah, you and I are going on a secret mission.” He explained.

“Like mommy?” Ruby exclaimed, smile brightening.

“Exactly like mommy,” Tai agreed, “I need you, Huntress Rose, to distract your sister, while I…. cut her hair.”

“Okay, daddy!” Ruby said, nodding her head.

“And remember, this is a secret mission, so…?”

“Shhhhhhh!”Ruby answered, placing her index finger over her mouth.

“Good girl.” He let her back onto the floor.

“Yang! Colour with me!” Ruy shouted, running off to go find where her sister had gone.

Five minutes later, Yang and Ruby were at the kitchen room table with an array of coloured pencils and markers surrounding them. Ruby looked up as he walked into the room, and somehow indiscreetly winked at him without Yang noticing.

“You girls hungry, yet?” He asked innocently, pretending that he was about to start dinner soon.

“Don’t we have to wait for mum and uncle Qrow, dad?” Yang asked, determinedly drawing a picture of her beating up a Beowolf.

He walked over to the pantry, pulled out a bag of chips and poured them into a bowl, which he set on the table. The two girls smiled at him in thanks, then buried both of their hands into the bowl, shoving the chips into their mouths as quickly as they could. While they both were distracted by colouring and food he’d never give them on a normal day, he slowly opened the kitchen drawer where the scissors were kept. He then crept over behind his eldest daughter, making sure to stay out of her vision.

Scissors closed around bright golden tresses, the unmistakable shimmer of Aura appeared around his daughter, and Yang suddenly snapped.

The insanity that followed could not be described with mere words, as Taiyang tried to console a very angry Yang who had accidently activated her own Aura. There was crying, yelling, scratching, and running around the living room while doing all three until Taiyang finally gave up and decided that the best thing to do was to just let Yang run out of energy.

Almost two hours later Tai was lying on the couch, both of his daughters passed out on his chest. Yang had calmed down about twenty minutes ago, and Ruby had come to join them in the pile. He was just about to nod off himself when Summer and Qrow walked through the door.

“Tai, we’re home!” Summer called out.

“Shhhh! We’re over here.” He replied, loudly whispering. Summer quieted down as she tiptoed over to the couch. She smiled softly as she saw the new length of Yang’s hair.

“You did it.” She said.

“Yeah. The entire house almost collapsed from the fallout, though.”

“Oh, it couldn’t have been that bad.” Summer chastised her husband.

“She unlocked her Aura.” He replied in a deadpan.

“Oh.” Summer was stunned for a second before she bent down to pick Ruby up and take her upstairs to bed. He gathered Yang in his arms and followed her up to the two girls’ bedroom. Even though there were enough bedrooms in the house for both of his daughters to have their own, as soon as Ruby turned three Yang insisted that they share one. Which was all well and good, especially since it meant that Qrow stopped complaining about having to sleep on the living room couch whenever he was over now that he had a bed to sleep in.

Together, the two parents brought their daughters to their beds. They decided it was best that they just let the two girls sleep, instead of waking them up to change into their pyjamas and brush their teeth. After both girls were settled into their beds for the night and had been tucked tightly under the covers along with various assortments of stuffed animals, the two parents turned off the light and turned back one last time to look at their children.

“Sorry about abandoning you to the beast.” Summer said in the half-darkness of the bedroom, amusement playing its way across her face along with the semi-genuine admission of guilt.”

“It wasn’t that big of a deal.”

“Still, she activated her own Aura at the age of five,” Summer said aghast, “What was it like?”

“Oh you know, a typical childhood with the added benefit of fire, red eyes, and a punch to my thigh that I’m pretty sure is bruised. She’ll make a good brawler, one day.”

“Red eyes?” Summer said, Tai turned to her with wide eyes, surprised that she would single out that particular thing he had said amongst the others, “Maybe she’s more like her mother than we thought.” She murmured, biting her lip.

“Maybe,” Tai agreed, staring down at his feet.

Summer noticed his distress, "But that's not generally a bad thing." She said, putting a comforting hand on Tai's shoulder.

"No... I guess not." He said, covering her hand with his own before bringing it up to his mouth for a kiss.

She smiled, moving her hand to cup his cheek, "Now come on, Qrow has been talking about that Vacuan Barbeque place in town all week, and now I have a craving. We can order in."

"Sounds good."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *sigh* This one took a while to write.... Like I've been trying to get it out for the last week. I was gonna finish it over the weekend when I got hit with a burst of hyperactivity and was basically unable to focus on anything for more than fifteen minutes.
> 
> I've also figured out that it is very difficult for me to write Taiyang. The other three members of STRQ have very clear voices in my mind, but Tai doesn't, even though he's had the most screen time after Qrow.
> 
> Anyways, some Taiyang headcanons:
> 
>   1. His parents were both notable Hunters that died on a mission, so he was raised by his grandmother on Patch. The house he lives in now was inherited from her.
>   2. 17-year-old Taiyang was a _very_ different person compared to present time Taiyang.
>   3. I personally believe that he absorbed a lot of Summer's personality traits. He learned how to become Best Dad(TM) from Super Mom(TM).
>   4. He's a brawler like Yang. His weapon/Semblance will probably be revealed in later chapters. My headcanon for that hasn't quite settled yet.
>   5. Out of everyone on Team STRQ, Tai was the only one who didn't have siblings.
>   6. Tai fell hard and fast for Raven.
> 



	8. needle

It was unsettling to see Raven like this. She was silent, unmoving, and her breath came out like a quiet whisper, just barely making itself known amongst the constant hum of the monitors and machines that she was hooked up to. Summer didn’t like being in the hospital room by herself. Qrow had kept an almost constant vigil at his sister’s side since they had returned, only leaving when he had to go to class, and Taiyang was much the same. Summer, however, couldn’t stand the infinite silence that polluted the room and caused her to retreat into the dark recesses of her mind where unwanted thoughts plagued her consciousness.

 

This was, after all, her fault.

 

It had been three days since they returned from their failed field mission. Tai and Qrow both had class for a couple hours, while Summer did not. So it was her turn to sit with Raven until the boys returned, promising to bring something to eat from the cafeteria. Unfortunately for Summer she had already completed her homework, and her scroll was almost out of battery, so she resigned herself to completing a task that she had set aside for several days now.

 

She opened the door to Raven’s room as quietly as possible and murmured a silent and unnecessary greeting to her unconscious teammate as she entered. Bowing her head, she walked over to the two equally uncomfortable chairs that sat next to Raven’s bedside, shrugged her backpack off her shoulders, and sat down. She then opened her backpack and took out her cloak and a small sewing kit that Qrow had lent to her. Holding up her cloak, she assessed the damage it had taken. One giant tear ripped itself through the fabric, from the fraying bottom-right corner diagonally to the middle of the cloak. Sighing, Summer opened up the sewing kit, grabbed a thimble, and began the slow work of repairing her favourite piece of clothing.

 

It was her fifth attempt at threading the needle when she suddenly realised how damned quiet the room was, and how much that silence unsettled her.

 

“I was always terrible at doing this,” Summer told her unconscious teammate as she tried to thread the needle a sixth time. No luck. She swore to herself and tried again. Finally, the thread poked its way through the eye of the needle and she silently congratulated herself.

 

“My mother was… is a tailor, so she used to make all our clothing for us. She made my first cloak when I was just a tot and I used to trip over it while I ran through the streets of my village. People would recognise me, help me up, and I’d be off again, running. I always liked to run with my cloak. It made me feel invincible.” Summer continued.

 

Meanwhile, she inserted her needle into the fabric of her cloak at the top of the tear. She then pulled it through slowly, making sure the knot that she tied at the end of her thread held. Once she was satisfied it would, she started her stitching.

 

“I used to get them so dirty, running around like that. Not to mention that I would grow out of them after a year or two. One day my mother decided that she would stop making them for me, and I would have to learn to make them for myself, ” Summer smiled at the memory, “So she sat me down one day and gave me a needle and thread to start, and told me sooner or later we’d use the sewing machine when I got better at using my hands.”

 

She continued her stitching until she finished her length of thread. She cut another piece, longer this time, and thread it through the needle. This time it only took her three times to do so.

 

“I remember we used to spend days together with her trying to teach me how to sew, and I never got any better. I used to get so frustrated that I would give up. I didn’t have a cloak for years because I refused to learn how to sew.”

 

She pricked herself with the needle. It didn’t draw blood, but it still hurt. She swore silently under her breath as she shook her hand, trying to banish the pain away.

 

“My father didn’t want me to go to Beacon. He allowed me to attend Flare because I told him I would go back home afterwards. I was able to convince him that if I was trained in combat, then I could use my skills to protect the village. I convinced myself that I would return, and then when I finally graduated, I found that I couldn’t. I changed too much.”

 

She started another stitch when she noticed that her hands were shaking too much. Taking a deep breath, she stopped what she was doing, and tried to calm herself down.

 

“My father and I fought the night before I came to Beacon, and my mother just sat there, not saying a word. At first, I thought she agreed with my father, until the next day. She was the only one to come with me to the train station, which is when she gave me this cloak. The first one she made in over five years. She must’ve stayed up all night to make it and have it ready for the next day. And now it’s torn.”

 

Silence enveloped the room once more. Summer just realised that there were tears that had been tracking down her cheeks. She lifted up a finger to wipe one away and stared at the droplet as it quivered on her fingertip before she wiped it on her shirt.

 

“It sounds like your mother loved you very much.”

 

Summer gasped at her teammate’s sudden awakening, rushing over to Raven’s bedside to embrace her when she realised that it might not be such a good idea, “Raven!”

 

“Greetings, Summer Rose,” Raven spoke, her voice hoarse. She attempted to push herself into a sitting position but was prevented from doing due to the pain in her abdomen. She groaned from the pain and collapsed onto her back, her arms going to cradle her stomach as she breathed heavily.

 

“Oh, don’t get up too quickly, you’re injured and you’ve been asleep for the past three days.” Summer explained.

 

“I feel like I have been mauled by an Ursa,” Raven grunted.

 

“Raven, you were mauled by an Ursa.” Summer reminded her.

 

“Ugh.”

 

“Just wait a minute, I’m going to call a doctor, see what they can do for the pain.”

 

Half an hour later, a doctor had come by to check on Raven. She completed a myriad of tests that had the girl questioning her every move, much to the doctor’s annoyance, and she left after giving Raven a cup of ice chips to chew on. Raven’s hospital bed had been moved so that she was in an upright position, and the sound of ice chips crunching in between her teeth echoed through the room as she watched Summer continue her sewing.

 

“Your mother was right, you are terrible at sewing,” Raven spoke around the ice chip in her mouth, muffling her words.

 

“Excuse me?” Summer exclaimed, stopping her work to raise an eyebrow at Raven.

 

Raven slowly held out a hand to her, “Give it here, I can fix it.”

 

Summer was taken aback, moving her cloak a little farther away from Raven’s outstretched hand without meaning to. She mulled over Raven’s proposal in her mind before she handed her cloak and needle over to the other girl. She then slipped the thimble off her thumb and handed that over as well. Raven took it all.

 

“Scissors?” She asked. Summer rolled her eyes, bent over to take the scissors out of the sewing kit, and handing them to the other girl. Without hesitation, Raven cut through the seam that Summer had been sewing, destroying all of her work. She took the needle, thread it one her first attempt, and started to sew. Summer watched, almost dumbfounded, as Raven’s long and calloused fingers delicately stitched the needle through the fabric, creating a perfectly even seam.

 

“Tell me about your mother, Summer Rose,” Raven said without taking her eyes off of her work.

 

“Huh?”

 

Raven peaked at Summer through the corner of her eye, “Your mother?”

 

“Oh, um, well… she looks like me, obviously, but she had brown eyes instead of silver. All of my family does. She’s a tailor, my dad is a blacksmith, and all of my brothers help him in the forge. I was supposed to learn my mother’s trade but, as you can see, I’m not the good at it. But that never mattered to her. She never wanted me to be her like my father did. She was the one who advocated me going to Flare in the first place, and she wrote to me every week when I was gone.”

 

“That’s nice,” Raven stated absentmindedly, thoroughly engrossed in her self-appointed task.

 

Summer smiled to herself, “Yeah I guess it was,” she turned to her teammate, “What about your mother, Raven? What was she like?”

 

“I don’t know, I never knew her,” Raven replied without skipping a beat, not even hesitating as she continued to sew.

 

Summer’s smile instantly fell from in her face, “Oh, I’m sorry. Your father?”

 

“I did not know him either.”

 

“That’s terrible.”

 

“You cannot miss what you never knew, Summer Rose,” Raven stated as if it were the simplest thing in Remnant.

 

“No, I guess not. Were you and Qrow by yourselves, then?” Summer asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

 

“No, my brother and I were… protected. We grew up with many other kids our age.” Raven stated while threading another needle.

 

“Oh, that’s good then. A happy ending.” Summer said.

 

“Indeed.” Raven agreed. The room descended into silence once more as Summer continued to watch Raven. She couldn’t help but feel sorry for the other girl, even if raven told her not to be. Learning that Raven’s parents died before she knew them, however, opened up a lot of windows into why she and Qrow acted the way they did.

 

Raven stopped sewing, her mouth dry once more. She put down the cloak and needle and reached over to her bedside table to grab the cup of ice chips. When she did so, she twisted her abdomen in a way that sent an arch of pain shooting up her entire body. Once more, she wailed in pain, quickly returning to her original position as her hand went to clutch at her stomach. She breathed heavily as Summer saw a small tear hover at the corner of her eye.

 

“Oh, Raven, you have to be careful.” Summer gasped as she leapt up from her chair. She grasped the cup of ice chips and fished one out of the cup. She then gestured for Raven to open her mouth and placed the chip on her tongue. Raven crunched the ice chip between her teeth as she tried to regain her breath.

 

“I’m… fine. Pain… is temporary.” Raven gasped through her breath, tears actively pooling in her eyes.

 

“I know, I just can’t help but feel worried. You got hurt because of me, and I feel bad.” Summer reached out to grasp Raven’s hand and, in a display of how much pain she was really in, Raven accepted it, squeezing Summer’s hand as waves of pain rocked her body.

 

It was enough to send Summer over the edge, “Oh Gods, Raven I’m so sorry.”

 

“Summer-”

 

“I told Qrow to attack, but I didn’t see the Beowolf, and of course you did so you pushed him out of the way, and you… and you… and you,” Summer’s hands started to shake in Raven’s grip as she broke down, tears streaming down her face, “Oh fuck, I can’t do this.” Summer admitted, turning away from Raven to hide her face.

 

“Summer-”

 

“What was Ozpin even thinking when he chose me as leader? You can see the future for fuck’s sake, it just makes sense. You were right from the beginning, you should have been leader instead of me. We probably wouldn’t be in such a mess, right? You would have prevented all this from happening, right?” Summer asked Raven, almost as if she were pleading with her.

 

“I… don't know Summer,” Raven admitted.

 

“Right, how could I forget?” Summer chastised herself, squeezing her eyes as tears continued to fall, “You see the probabilities, not the outcomes.” Summer sighed, collapsing into one of the chairs by Raven’s bedside. She rolled her head backwards toward the ceiling.

 

“Why am I so bad at this?” Summer asked.

 

The room was silent for several minutes as Summer pondered her own question. The malevolent lull once again caught Summer in its grasp, sending her into a tangle of unkind thoughts.

 

“You’re not.” Raven broke the silence.

 

“What?”

 

“You’re not a bad leader. Yes, you have much to learn in terms of strategy, but in other ways, you are a better leader than I could ever be.”

 

“Really? You mean it?”

 

“I was… wrong about you when we first met. I had some misconceptions on the qualities I thought a leader should have and misjudged your worth as a leader because of them. Strength, ferocity, and powerful charisma. These are the qualities of those who I’ve followed throughout my life. Yet you are kind, and quiet, and possess an empathy I have never seen before. People don’t listen to you because they fear you, they listen to you because you listen to them, and they respect you because of it.”

 

Summer was taken back, “That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.” She whispered.

 

“It’s true,” Raven assured Summer and although Summer could never really tell what Raven was thinking at any given moment, she did seem sincere.

 

“Thank you.” Summer said. Raven nodded in return and went back to her work. The room was silent once more, but this time, the silence became peaceful and warm. Raven was halfway through fixing Summer’s cloak. Summer looked at the clock on the wall to see that the boys’ classes were over for the day. They should have been in the cafeteria, then, to grab some food for Summer before joining her and the now awake Raven in the hospital. Summer smiled to herself as she took out her scroll and earbuds so she could listen to music. Then, she reached down to take out a notebook and pen and began to write.

 

Team STRQ had a lot of work to do.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unlike the previous chapter, this one was written quite easily. It went through a lot of iterations in my head before it was put to paper, but when I did start to write it, it was basically word vomit.
> 
> This chapter started as a funny little scene between Summer and Qrow, Summer being terrible with sewing and Qrow saying 'lol I can do that better than you' and Summer being like 'what?'. Then I thought of using it as a post-terrible field mission one-shot. Once again, it was supposed to be a scene between Summer and Qrow, but I eventually realised that it was slightly more... poignant(?) that it be Raven instead. Summer and Qrow's relationship seems obvious to me, Summer and Raven's, however, does not.
> 
> The evolution of Team STRQ reminds me of a quote from Leverage, one of my fave tv shows: "We agreed we all change. Better or worse, we change together."
> 
> The character development of each team member has to go hand in hand with the other. They have to affect each other in ways that make them change. Summer must become a more confident leader, Raven must become more empathetic.


	9. necklace

It was a well-known fact that crows were drawn to shiny objects. 

  


Another well-known fact was that Qrow bore more resemblance to his namesake than he would have liked to admit, and Raven seemed to be the only one who ever noticed.

  


Growing up in a tribe of nomadic bandits never really allowed for the collection of personal belongings. By an unspoken rule, each member of the tribe only owned two things: the weapon in their hand, and the clothes on their back. The twins tended to follow the rules, but that didn’t stop Qrow from straying from the path every once in awhile.

  


It started when they were thirteen: too young to go on raids, but old enough to return to the ruins afterwards. It was their job to pick through the bones and ashes of the villages the tribe left behind in their destructive wake. They returned by themselves after the Grimm were long gone and pure silence echoed through the roofs of towns that used to be vibrant and thriving. Raven never really thought about it, and Qrow thought about it a little too much.

  


Raven walked through the village, hand on the hilt of Talon, which she kept sheathed. Qrow was up ahead. Claw had been fully extended into its scythe form that he hefted it over his shoulders; a reaper of lost souls. She watched as he stopped somewhere in the middle of the street, and crouched down, placing Claw next to him.

  


“Do you see anything, brother?” Raven asked, calling ahead.

  


“No, just the usual.” He replied. Raven rushed to him to see what he had found.

  


Before her brother’s crouched figure laid the two dead bodies of a young couple. The woman’s face was set in a permanent picture of fear and her right arm was bent at an unnatural angle. Her partner’s face was covered in blood, and his features couldn’t be seen through the mess. Both of them had large gauges in their abdomens, where guts and gore had been spilling out to feed maggots and another manner of scavengers.

  


Raven covered her nose when she got a whiff of the stench coming off of the decaying bodies, “We should move along, brother.” She told him. She placed a hand on her shoulder and tugged, trying to get him to move away. But he wouldn't turn around, stubborn as ever.

  


“Look at their hands,” Qrow stated, gaze unshaken by his sister's interference.

  


The man’s right hand had been bitten off by something, but his left hand reached across his body to hold the woman’s left. They each wore a bright silver ring, tarnished by blood, on their fourth finger.

  


“They were married.”

  


“Qrow-”

  


“Do you think they had a kid?”

  


“The others would have picked them up.”

  


“Do you think this is what happened to-”

  


“Qrow.” Raven interrupted him, already knowing what he was going to bring up.

  


He sighed, clenching his fist, “I know, we should go. Makes no sense to pity the dead,” he said. She turned to leave, walking away from him. He took an extra minute to catch up. She didn’t look back to see what had kept him.

  


It wasn’t until several days later that she noticed the rings, bright glittering silver, on the index and fourth finger of his right hand. 

  


Qrow kept the rings for many years, eventually adding a second one on his fourth finger at some point before they left for Beacon. During their second night at the academy, their new teammates commented on the fact that neither of the siblings seemed to have many personal belongings, or perhaps none at all. Raven remembered giving a nonchalant shrug, along with a weak explanation about her and Qrow’s previous life.

  


The question of possessions didn’t come up again until months later when it was Qrow and Raven’s birthday. They had been out all day, first at class, then at the gym for sparring practice, and finally at the library to finish some homework. Neither of them gave much importance to the specifics of the date, and both were quite happy to let it pass unnoticed. Which is why they were quite surprised to see a present, wrapped in bright red wrapping paper, sitting on each of their beds when they walked into the room.

  


Raven turned her gaze to Taiyang, who was lying upside down on his bed playing a game on his scroll, narrowing her eyes, “What is the meaning of this?” She asked, scathingly. 

  


It was enough to force Tai to stop playing, and direct blame onto his other teammate, “Hey don’t look at me, this was all Summer’s idea.”

  


From her desk in the corner of the room, where the girl in question was pretending to listen to music while doing work, Summer began to fume, “Damn it, Taiyang.” She snapped. Quick as a whip, she turned around, throwing the eraser in her hand straight at him. It landed directly in the middle of his forehead, and he yelped at the pain, bringing his hand up to the stinging red spot on his face.

  


“Not cool, Summer.” He complained.

  


“I told you to stay quiet.” She said to him, crossing her arms.

  


“How’d you guys know it’s our birthday?” Qrow interrupted their spat. He walked over to his bed, and carefully picked up the present. He inspected it, turning it around and even shaking it a bit to try and figure out what was inside.

  


“It’s not a bomb, Qrow,” Summer smirked, “And Tai told me.”

  


“In strict confidence!” Tai interrupted, “I didn’t think you were gonna do this.” He gestured to the present still sitting on Raven’s bed.

  


“You told her,” Raven accused, looking at Tai with a piercing glare.

  


Tai turned bright red and crossed his arms in front of himself. He suddenly couldn’t look Raven in the eye, “Well, yeah. I figured if you told me, you wouldn’t really mind… If I… told…” Tai trailed off as Raven quietly steamed in front of him, crimson eyes glowing brightly with rage. Raven automatically tried to reach for Talon, which she was so used to having with her at all times that she forgot it was still in her locker at the gym. Her next thought was to grab her scroll when she felt a hand wrap around her wrist to stop her. She turned to see her brother, a glare of warning on his face.

  


It was a silent argument like many of their arguments were if neither of them had their weapons at hand. Filled with raised eyebrows, rolled eyes, and crimson stares, it only took a couple of seconds for Qrow to get his point across.

  


They’re trying to be nice. Be grateful. Stop acting like this is the end of the world.

  


She sighed and sat down on the edge of her bed, next to the present. As she lifted it onto her lap, she was surprised by the weight of it. It was much larger in size compared to Qrow’s. Almost unsure of what to do, she looked for a seam in Summer’s impeccable wrapping job. She then picked off the tape with the tip of her fingernail and took off the paper, careful to not rip anything. The red wrapping paper opened to reveal a simple cardboard box underneath. A postage sticker had been stuck to it, but most of the information on it had been blacked out with the heavy scribbling of a black marker. A red stamp bearing the warning 'FRAGILE: HANDLE WITH CARE' piqued Raven's interest. As carefully as she had taken off the wrapping paper, she opened the box to reveal a tea set, including a teapot with two matching cups, nestled in an overabundance of packaging paper.

  


Raven was speechless.

  


“It’s from Mistral,” Summer spoke up from her corner of the room, “I found a place in town that imports custom tea sets from Anima. They also import Mistrali green tea if you want the name.”

  


Raven barely heard her as she inspected the gift. First, she looked at the teapot, which had a handle on the side instead of the back for pouring. It had been painted a very dark brown, which was almost black in colour except when you looked at it under the light. The left eye of the Branwen emblem stared back at her, painted in bright crimson red. Inside of the pupil of the eye, instead of the normal gear, was the Old Mistrali symbol for ‘raven’, if she remembered correctly. She returned the teapot back to its packaging and then turned her attention to the two teacups. They were painted with the same colours as the pot. On the crimson red background, the shattered moon of Remnant was drawn with stark white paint. In front of the moon, the silhouette of a raven in flight surrounded by bare tree branches was done in the dark brown. Looking a both of the teacups, the little inconsistencies between the two revealed that all the work had been done by hand.

  


Raven suddenly realised that Summer must have been planning this for months. With quivering fingers, she put the teacups back down.

  


She was speechless, “It’s… very nice. I’m… thank you.” Raven stammered, moving her gaze to look at Summer, who had a small smile on her face. Raven nodded in thanks, and Summer returned the gesture.

  


“Your turn, Qrow.” Summer said, turning to look at him.

  


Unlike Raven, Qrow didn’t waste time unwrapping his present. He ripped off the paper with childish glee, scraps of it flying all over the room, to reveal a black leather gift box with a silver logo embellished onto the top of the lid. He opened it slowly, peering into it, the expression on his face completely blank.

  


The silence was too much for Summer to take, “Do you like it? I know it’s not as... grandiose as Raven’s-”

  


“I love it,” Qrow interrupted her, a brilliant smile erupting onto his face as he turned to face her. Curious, Raven and Tai got up to look over his shoulder and see what was inside the box. On black velvet, lay a necklace with tilted cross pendant made of platinum, attached to a thin black leather cord. With reverent fingers, Qrow picked it up into his hands, feeling the weight of the ice cold metal in his palm.

  


“I got it from the jewellery store you always stare at when we go into Vale.” Summer explained.

  


Qrow narrowed his eyes, still looking at the pendant as if hypnotised by it, “I don’t stare at jewellery stores.” He stated absentmindedly.

  


“Yes you do, brother,” Raven commented from behind him.

  


“Every time,” Tai said, backing her and Summer up.

  


Qrow didn’t even mind the gentle teasing of his team. He tossed the gift box onto his bed, and excitedly tried to undo the clasp of the necklace with shaking fingers. After a couple seconds of failing to do so, Summer offered her hand.

  


“Here, I’ll do it.” She said. Qrow gave her the necklace and she undid the clasp easily She then gestured for him to turn around so she could place it around his neck. He bent down a little so she could get her arm over his head. She redid the clasp, and Qrow turned around again. Summer gasped as he brought her into his arms, hugging her tightly into his chest as he whispered his thanks into her ear. Slowly, she brought her arms out from being stuck in between their bodies and returned the embrace, glad that Qrow enjoyed his gift.

  


“You’re welcome.”

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woot! Here's a chapter to celebrate the final ep of RWBY V4! I really loved this season, and I think it ended on such a great note for the next volume. Now we just have to go through eight months of waiting.
> 
> This was another chapter that got away from me. Still, I really enjoyed writing it. Raven is such a mysterious character that I really like writing from her perspective.
> 
> Some notes:
> 
>   1. I've talked about Raven's tea set two times before, once in the first chapter and then again in the sixth. I don't know why I have the headcanon that Raven enjoys drinking green tea, it's just something that popped into my head.
>   2. One of my headcanon's about the tribe, which I kind of hint on in this chapter, is that the women of the tribe don't have children. It came from when Raven said in V04E04 that "the tribe raised us". I find this wording to be extremely specific. Then I really started thinking about it, and it makes sense. The tribe would need to maintain it's numbers, but having pregnant women wouldn't be beneficial at all. At some point they wouldn't be able to fight, and then the process of giving birth in the wilderness is dangerous enough, and then there's the Grimm that would probably arrive because of the possible negative emotions that come with it. Not to mention the fact that babies are another liability. Solution? Kidnap children from the families of the villages you plunder. Take them at a certain age, where they're young enough to eventually forget their parents but old enough to not be a total liability, and boom, you have population growth.
>   3. On a completely unrelated note: Summer Rose is the Leslie Knope of gift giving in this scenario.
>   4. When this prompt came up, I was genuinely pleased that it did. I like being able to have some sort of explanation behind a character's design. The things a character wears gives an insight to they are. For Qrow, being someone who seems to have a lot of nostalgia for the good ol' day of team STRQ, I don't think that continuing to wear the first birthday present he ever received is a far stretch.
>   5. Also, this opens up the subject of birthdays, so here are the headcanons about that. Please note that since we don't have an actual calendar for Remnant yet, I'm just using approximations by season, because we do know that Remnant has four specific seasons. Also, the seasons that I'm going with are the ones that I'm used to up here in Canada, so take note: 
>     1. Tai: Spring (Equivalent of Late April, Early May)
>     2. Summer: Winter (equiv of January), she was named summer because the winter that year was so bad
>     3. Raven & Crow: Late fall, when everything is dead and the ground starts to frost (mid to late November)
>     4. Yang: Middle of Summer, when it's sweltering hot (equiv of July)
>     5. Ruby: Right at the end of Summer, when the leaves start to fall (equiv of mid to late September)
> 



	10. mine

It was his birthday.

 

Scratch that, it was actually their birthday. However, there hadn’t really been a 'them' for almost two years now, but that was neither here nor there. The point was that he was celebrating his birthday. Not her’s.

 

At least, that was the mantra he repeated inside his mind throughout the day, from the point when he was woken up at the crack of dawn due to the cries of an infant Ruby, to just twenty minutes ago when they were all eating dinner and Summer had come to the startling realisation that she had forgotten the importance of the date.

 

He couldn't blame her, the struggle of dealing with a two-year-old toddler as well as a two-month-old infant was catching up to her, and she had a lot on her plate. Truthfully, he was almost thankful that she forgot. It was easier to get through the day by pretending it didn't exist, rather than pretending that everything was the way that it used to be.

 

He suffered through Summer’s endless torrent of apologies with a smile on his face. She was holding a sleeping Ruby in her arms, and even though she was talking to him she was still utterly entranced by her tiny daughter. The new mother hadn't been more than a room away from Ruby for more than five minutes since the moment she was born, and she was running herself ragged. Bags had started to grow under her eyes. She was getting the least amount of sleep out of all of them, even if she had started to learn the benefits of having a power nap when both of the girls were down for a nap each day. Qrow never expected her to have the time to go into town, or to Vale, to buy him the most perfect and also touching gift for his twenty-fourth birthday.

 

Summer rambled on as Qrow did the dishes. After he was done, he accepted her fifteenth apology in a row and gave her a sideways hug so as not to disturb the infant in her arms, before telling her that he was going to turn in early for the night.

 

Except he didn't turn in early for the night. Instead, He snuck out of his bedroom window like a rebellious teenager, albeit with a lot more style. Being able to transform into his namesake on a whim had always been a double-edged sword: it added a unique style of stealth to his repertoire of skills, yet it also made him the butt of many avian-themed jokes, often directed to him from a certain blond teammate of his.

 

He flew quite a ways down the path that lead through the forest down into town before he transformed back into a human. He made sure that he was far enough from the house that he wouldn't have been spotted by a wayward glance out the window. He was not very proud of what he was about to do, but he knew that if either Summer or Taiyang found out then he would have been in some pretty deep shit. In his mind, as always, it was better to deal the fallout tomorrow. Forgiveness was easier to ask for anyways.

 

Putting his hands into his pockets, he shivered as he walked under the bare treetops that crisscrossed their way through the moonlit sky. He could hear a version of Summer within his mind, berating him for not bringing a coat. It was near the end of autumn, and the ground was just beginning to frost. The leaves that used to be on the trees were crunching under his feet as he made his way down the path. In the distance, he saw the streetlights of the town of Patch, and he picked up his pace.

 

His feet brought him to the only pub in town, straight to the bar at the back of the building. He was pretty sure that at one point in time, probably a couple years ago, Summer had paid the bartender off to not serve him anything, but Qrow had more than enough to sway him to his side. He slapped down a couple hundred Lien onto the bar, ordered a whisky, and told the bartender to keep them coming.

 

There was no way he was getting through this night sober.

 

\--

 

She went to him because she knew that he wouldn't remember their conversation. She knew that the next day when he woke up in his bed with a pounding headache, the acrid taste of bottom-shelf whisky in his mouth, and the unshakeable need to vomit, he would come to the final conclusion that he somehow got back home by himself before running to the bathroom.

 

That night was a night for confessing. And there was no other person she would rather confess to.

 

She walked into the pub with her head held eye, grabbing looks from all across the room. She had decided to keep her mask at home, but it was doubtful that many of the townsfolk saw people brazenly carrying a weapon around on a daily basis, especially one as eye-catching as Talon. She sat next to Qrow at the bar, leaning Talon against it between her legs. She then waved the bartender over.

 

“How many has he had?” She asked him, gesturing to Qrow, who was lying face down on the bar, head nestled into his crossed arms.

 

“Nine or ten. Ran out of money a while ago.” The bartender shrugged, drying a glass with a towel in his hands.

 

Raven pulled some Lien out and slid it across the bar over to him, “I’ll have what he’s having, and keep them coming.” She demanded.

 

“The bartender looked at her sceptically, one eyebrow raised. His gaze shifted between her and Qrow, “You sure he’s gonna be okay?”

 

She shrugged her shoulders, and easily slipped into a lie, “It’s our birthday today, guess he started celebrating a bit too early.” The bartender accepted her story and came back a couple minutes later, two glasses of whisky in his hands. When he put them down on the bar, it was enough to shake Qrow from his slumber. She watched in disgust er brother picked up on of the tumblers and knocked it back with one gulp. She quickly snatched the second one so he wouldn't do the same to her own drink. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve, then he looked at her from the corner of his eyes.

 

“So, you’re here.” He grumbled. Ten seconds later, the bartender placed another tumbler of whisky in front of him. This time, Qrow just took a sip before setting it back down again.

 

“Yes.” She replied, taking a sip of her own drink, almost gagging at the taste. She had never had the same tolerance for alcohol that her brother did.

 

Qrow shook his head, “You're not real.” He stated as if he was trying to convince himself this was all just a dream.

 

Raven raised her eyebrow, “Why not?”

 

“You don’t come when I’m sober.” He said. Apparently, he had seen her before when he was in this drunken state. He sighed, “Why are you here, sis?”

 

“A girl can’t see her brother on their birthday?”

 

“Only to tell him if she’s coming back.” There was a beat of silence between them. Qrow stared at her accusingly. She didn't return his glare, just continued to stare at her drink, dragging her finger along the rim of the glass, building up the strength to do the thing she came here to do.

 

“How’s Ruby?” She asked. Qrow's eyes widened, his interest suddenly piqued. Maybe he did believe that she was real, instead of a figment of his drunken conscious.

 

“How do you know about her?” He asked.

 

“I’ve known about her birth for… a while now.” She explained, deliberately maintaining an aura of vagueness. She took another sip of her drink. It burned on the way down.

 

Qrow copied her, taking another sip from his tumbler as well, “She’s good. Summer and Tai dote on her constantly.”

 

“So she is Taiyang’s daughter after all.”

 

Qrow wasn't an idiot, he could hear what she was implying. “What did you see, Raven?”

 

“I saw Summer and the child in the hospital room. I saw Taiyang, and I saw you. You were late.” She said, accurately describing what had happened on the day of Ruby's birth. He had been in a meeting with Oz in the others, and his scroll had been turned off. When he finally remembered to turn it back on, he was bombarded with multiple messages telling him to get to the hospital on Patch as soon as possible. Without as second thought, he had run out of the meeting as quickly as he could, the glares of his colleagues chasing after him as he flew out of the open window.

 

“So Ruby could have been…” The last word went unspoken between the two of them.

 

“Perhaps," Raven admitted, " Although I never saw that possibility, I thought it wise not to draw conclusions.”

 

“But you still came here to confirm them,” As always, he saw right through her. He knew she was keeping more information from him,

 

“What else did you see, Raven?” He demanded.

 

She wasn't ready to tell him yet, so she redirected his question with one of her own, “The girl has her mother’s eyes?”

 

Qrow didn't answer, but the glare he gave her did.

 

“Good.”

 

“What did you see, Sis?” He demanded a second time. He was getting angry now, infuriated at the circles that Raven was weaving into their conversation.

 

Raven took a breath and held it, “Summer’s child needed to be born. Me leaving was the catalyst for that future to become recognised.” She confessed.

 

“How long?” He asked.

 

“Qrow-”

 

“How long, Raven.” He was fully enraged now, glaring at her with sparkling eyes. His fist was clenched around his tumbler, hard enough that he could shatter it if his Semblance decided to latch on.

 

Thankfully, it didn't, but she kept her gaze on it just in case. She couldn't look him in the eyes anymore. “Around the time I discovered I was pregnant.”

 

“And why are you telling me now, of all times?”

 

“Because I know you’ll forget this conversation in the morning.” She bowed her head.

 

“You fucking coward,” Qrow shouted, releasing his hand from around the glass and banging his fist on the bar. The whisky glasses rattled from the tremors. Raven grew uneasy as all the heads in the bar immediately turned to look the disturbance of the drunken peace. The bartender glared at them, and Raven figured out that they had overstayed their welcome. She nodded to him and took out some more Lien from her pocket to give to him as a tip, even though she had never even finished her drink. She then attached Talon to her hip and grabbed her brother’s arm to put it over her shoulder. She lifted him out of his seat so that he was still standing on his own two legs, but she was bearing most of his weight. He stumbled along beside her as she lead him out of the bar.

 

They walked over to the edge forest, and she lead them far enough into the trees so that no prying eyes would be able to see them. She let her brother lean against a tree for a couple seconds while she took out the blade made of pure, glittering crimson Dust from Talon’s holster. With one swipe at the air with her sword, a portal was cut into the fabric of the space around it. She then picked up her brother once more and leads him through it. He mumbled something against his chest, a comment on her new blade perhaps, but she wasn't able to hear exactly what he said.

 

As always, a chill made its way down her spine as she walked through the swirling vortex of crimson darkness, but when she came out the other side she was welcomed by comforting warmth and the strong scent of what she could only describe as home.

 

Her brother’s bed was, unsurprisingly, unmade, which made it even easier for her to dump him on top of it. She took an extra second to pull the blankets over his body as his disorientated eyes tried to focus on the ceiling above him. Once the covers were over his body, he turned onto his side and burrowed his head into his pillows, bringing up his legs to curl them against his chest. She presses a hand into his hair and bid him a silent goodbye before she turned around and created another portal.

 

“Y’know, sis, it doesn’t matter to me.” He said to her back, speech slurring.

 

“What doesn’t, brother?” She asked

 

“If she’s mine or not. If either o’ them are.”

 

“Why not?”

 

“‘Cuz I don’t need somethin’ as stupid as blood to love ‘em. I’m gonna be better than you. I’m gonna be the best uncle in all of Remnant.” He said, determination written into the tone of his voice.

 

Raven smiled. A vision of a small Summer lookalike trying to wield a crimson red scythe with shaking arms flowed through her mind. The girl smiled as Qrow walked up to her, correcting her stance with practised hands and a warm smile.

 

“I know you will, brother.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I promised myself I wouldn't post two chapters about the twins' birthdays in a row, but I just couldn't help myself. This is honestly my favourite chapter that I've written so far, and I just wanted to post it so bad. I've been thinking of the concept since I wrote chapter 6 and I've been sitting on it ever since.
> 
> A couple notes:
> 
>   1. Raven's Semblance is always very difficult to write. And now I've got it in my head that her relationship with her Semblance has certainly evolved over time. She started with just being able to see the possibilities, and then she started figuring out how to to make them into actual outcomes, sometimes for her benefit over others.
>   2. I also hope this chapter clears up my stance on the whole 'Qrow is Ruby's father' thing. I ultimately think that their relationship is more interesting and rewarding if they're just uncle and niece. However, Raven is kind of trying to poke the bear here by insinuating Ruby _could_ have been his. It doesn't work.
>   3. Raven also gives Qrow _part_ of her reasoning behind leaving. However, I'm not going to leave it at that. I think there are multiple reasons that piled up that forced Raven to run back to the tribe.
> 

> 
> Also, on a kind of unrelated note, this story has reached 1500 hits on ao3 and ff.net combined! So thank you to everyone that has read it, as well as commented, kudoed, favourited, and subscribed!


	11. field

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while since I've posted.
> 
> Here's a 9300 word chapter to assure you, I'm not even _close_ to done.
> 
> Enjoy!

_Day 1_

  


Raven had always been one to wake up at the crack of dawn. She rose with the sun, quite content to greet the day by herself from the roof of Team STRQ’s dormitory while sipping a mug of tea. It was her morning routine, which is why none of her teammates was ever unsettled if they awoke to find her gone. In fact what was more unsettling to those that roomed with her, was the one day that each of them was up and ready for the day before she even opened her eyes.

  


In short, it was enough to cause a bit of alarm.

  


Instead of Raven, it was Summer who woke first. She barely noticed that Raven was still huddled beneath her blankets, so she began her morning routine comfortably, grabbing a towel and shower caddy and heading towards the bathroom to wash up for the day. When she returned, wet hair dripping onto the floor, Qrow had already woken up by then, which left only Tai.

  


The wake-up time of one Taiyang Xiao Long was enough to send Summer into a tizzy since Tai didn’t really ‘wake up’. Instead, he was forced out of his bed at an appropriate time in the morning by Summer, who had the nasty tendency of pushing him right off his bed if he didn’t meet her standards of early-rising. Standards which Qrow had already learned about in his first week at Beacon, but Tai couldn’t seem to get a hold of.

  


Today was no different.

  


Fifteen minutes later, and the three members of Team STRQ were up and ready for the new day ahead of them, except for one they suddenly realised. They stood around Raven’s bed, trying to decide which one of them was brave enough to wake her.

  


“Qrow should do it,” Taiyang stated.

  


Qrow gawked at him, “Hell no, the last time I tried to wake up my sister she put me in a choke hold in under five seconds. I couldn’t speak right for two days.”

  


“Maybe she’s sick?” Summer suggested, much more worried about Raven’s health than the other two were.

  


They all jumped back a step when all of a sudden, Raven violently woke up. She gasped as the top half of her body rose quickly off the bed, as if something at frightened her from her rest. She continued to catch her breath as droplets of sweat rolled down her forehead. She brought her hand up to her eyes, blocking them from the light as she squinted in pain.

  


Her team surrounded her in a flash.

  


“You alright, sis?”

  


“Are you feeling okay, Raven?”

  


“What’s wrong?”

  


Qrow, Summer, and Tai all began to speak over each other, making the pain in Raven’s head pulse harder than before.

  


“It’s just a headache. Your concern is not helping.” She grumbled, quieting them with a simple crimson glare. Immediately, everyone fell silent and backed away from her bed. Without another word, she got up, grabbed a towel, her shower stuff, and some clothes to change into, and left the room, leaving behind her dumbfounded teammates. The three of them exchanged glances, silently questioning one another about the status of their teammate. After going through an entire conversation with just their eyes, Summer finally sighed and followed Raven out of the room, jogging to catch up with her.

  


“You sure you’re okay?” Summer asked again.

  


“I shall be fine, Summer. It’s just a headache.” Raven reminded her, walking a little faster to pass Summer.

  


“Are you sure? ‘Cuz if you’re not feeling too good, we can wait until next weekend to do our field mission. I’d rather you be 100% than anything less.” Summer said as Raven opened the door to the bathroom.

  


Raven sighed, stopping just inside the doorway, her clenched fist braced against the door frame, “This weekend is too important for us to miss. I promise my condition will not disturb the performance of the team.”

  


Summer’s left hand grasped her wrist as her eyes shifted to look at the floor, “That’s not the only reason I’m asking, Raven.”

  


Raven rolled her eyes, slightly irritated now, “There is no need to be worried about me. You have more important things to focus on.” And with that, the conversation was over. Raven slammed the door behind her as she disappeared into the washroom, leaving Summer by herself in the hall. Slightly angrier than she had been five minutes ago, Summer stormed back into the room, where Tai and Qrow had started to pack their bags.

  


She huffed as she walked into the room, throwing herself onto her bed. She raised her arm over her eyes with dramatic flare, “I don't understand her, sometimes.”

  


Qrow scoffed, “You just need to practice.”

  


“Practice what?”

  


“Practice getting through a conversation with her, without pissing her off,” Qrow shrugged.

  


“Got any tips?”

  


Qrow chuckled, “Hell no. I've been attached to her since day one and I still manage to annoy her.”

  


“That’s because you’re actively trying to piss her off,” Taiyang interjected, throwing something across the room so Qrow could catch it and put it in his pack.

  


Qrow smiled to himself, “Heh, right.”

  


“Ugh, you two aren’t helping,” Summer groaned.

  


“You ain't doing much either, Sunflower,” Qrow told her, gesturing to the still-empty pack on her bed, compared to his full one. She rolled her eyes as she got off her bed to pack, just as Qrow started to pack Raven’s stuff for her. Raven returned after all the packing had been finished, looking no less grumpy than she was ten minutes ago. She didn’t say a word as she stormed into the room and started to clean up the area around her bed. Wordlessly, Qrow handed Raven her full pack. Summer tried to read the expressions from the corner of her eye. The twins tended to have silent conversations with each other using only their eyes, something that unnerved Summer to no end. Suddenly, the alarm on her scroll went off in her pocket, indicating that it was 8:30.

  


She took the device out of pocket to turn the alarm off, “C’mon, we should head to the dining hall to pick up something to eat before we get our weapons.” She stated, grabbing her pack and hefting it onto her shoulder. She then grabbed her cloak, wrapped it around her shoulders, and lead her team out of the door.

  


As they walked out of the dormitory and across Beacon campus towards the dining hall, Summer couldn’t help but feel a tiny sense of dread for the upcoming weekend. While Team STRQ had certainly individually improved since coming to Beacon, their teamwork was still lacking something to be desired, and Summer felt that her leadership qualities were similarly underdeveloped. However, they were only supposed to be shadowing a Huntsman over the weekend, not necessarily doing anything particularly life-threatening.

  


Their trip to the dining hall was just a pit stop on their way to the locker room, so they didn’t sit down to eat. Instead, Summer and Tai grabbed a couple of muffins while the twins stuffed a half-dozen apples each into their backpacks. A pile of dishes had toppled over on the other side of the room, sending all the of the dining hall workers over there to clean up the mess, and ensuring that the twins wouldn’t be spotted while they enacted their theft. As they left, Summer handed Qrow a chocolate chip muffin, his personal favourite since he had come to Beacon.

  


They ate their small breakfasts on their way to the locker room, trails of muffin crumbs dropping to the ground as they walked along their path. The cool autumn air ruffled Summer’s hair, sending a chill down her neck and spine. She was suddenly glad that she had decided to wear her leggings under her combat skirt today, especially if they ended up going somewhere colder than the temperate city of Vale on their excursion. Behind the group, a flock of birds came down to eat the forgotten muffin crumbs.

  


Once they were in the locker room, they all went to their respective lockers. Summer quickly punched her code into the keypad and the steel door opened to reveal Delicate Thorn, along with its quiver that held five dozen arrows, a mix of regular ones, as well as Dust-tipped arrows. Inside, there was also a belt that she wrapped around her waist. It was made out of a thin sheet of bendable metal wrapped in black cloth that gave the magnets in her bow and quiver something to grasp onto when they were holstered. She attached her quiver to her right hip, before collapsing her bow into its most compact state and attaching it to her back.

  


Across the room, Taiyang reverently put on his scale-plated caestus gloves. He clenched his hands, feeling the rough leather stretch across his knuckles as the small metal plates shifted with it. Bringing up his fists closer to his face in a fighter’s pose, he struck out into the air twice, letting his Aura flow through the gold Dust-woven thread carefully embroidered into the leather of the caestus. On each strike a small puff of flame materialised in the air, travelling a couple of metres before dissipating. A couple lockers down, in the direction that Tai had aimed his strikes, Qrow was inspecting a fully extended Claw before he sent an irritated stare to the other boy when Tai’s flames came just a little too close for comfort. Summer was just about to call out Tai for being reckless before Qrow decided to take matters into his own hands, when Raven appeared behind him, wrapping her giant mass of hair under a red bandana, Talon attached at her hip. With her presence, the tension between the two boys was quickly stifled under her crimson glare.

  


Getting into a fight with one another was never worth it if Raven would be the one to interrupt it. Bruises were unavoidable with Raven, while Summer would navigate more towards terse words, pointed fingers, and threats to stop baking her famous chocolate chip cookies. Both strategies worked, but one was obviously more pleasant than the other. 

  


Twenty minutes later they were in the auditorium after Ozpin had given a lengthy speech of which neither of them would remember, surrounding a holoscreen, trying to pick out a mission that all of them could agree on. Summer was at the front and centre of the group as her three teammates gathered around her, Qrow and Raven to her left and right while Tai stood behind her with his hands on her shoulders. Occasionally one of them would point their fingers at a mission listing that they read as Summer quickly scrolled through them, prompting her to slap the protruding finger away.

  


“What about an escort mission?” Summer suggested, hovering her finger over a mission that would bring them to Vacuo if they decided to choose it.

  


“Boring,” Tai stated, taking a bite out of an apple he had stealthily stolen from Qrow’s pack.

  


Summer rolled her eyes, “Okay… How ‘bout we stay in the city? We can help out the local police?”

  


“Boring,” Qrow repeated.

  


Summer sighed, “You guys are being way too picky for our first mission.”

  


“C’mon Sum, find a Search and Destroy mission for us to go on.” Tai nagged, voice muddled around the bite of apple he had just taken.

  


“I did, but then you found out it was in Atlas and you said you didn’t want to go because you don’t like the cold.” Summer chided.

  


“Then find another one.”

  


“They were all taken because you’re being too picky!”

  


“What about that one.” Raven interrupted, pointing her finger to a Village Security listing, “The hunters of a village north of Vale spotted a Beowolf pack nearby and they want us to clear it out. Mission length should be a maximum of five days, leaving immediately, and the Huntsman in charge is a woman named… Iris Regalia.”

  


Tai gasped, “Oh, I know her!”

  


Summer turned around, “Really?”

  


“Well, I know of her," Tai corrected himself, "I Saw her picture in my parents’ old yearbooks, they graduated in the same year as her. She was the top marksman in the class.”

  


“She sounds exemplary,” Raven remarked.

  


“So we’re all in agreement?” Summer asked the group, smiling when she received a nod from each of them in return. She let out a long breath of anxious air as she selected the mission, and typed in their four initials to sign them up. The confirmation notice appeared on the screen, and Summer couldn’t even press her finger to the screen before Tai did it for her.

  


A second notice appeared on screen, telling them they would be departing immediately from dock seven. With a mix of trepidation and excitement, the group of four hoisted their packs onto their shoulders and left for their first mission.

  


 

  


_Day 2_

  


At some unknown time the next morning, too early for the sun to be up, Sumer was unceremoniously awoken by no less the seven loud bangs on the door of the room she and Raven were sharing. She was seconds away from falling asleep again when the seven knocks were repeated on the next door over which lead into the room that the boys’ were sharing. 

  


Iris’ loud booming voice echoed through the hallway outside, “Up and at ‘em, rookies, we leave in twenty.”

  


Summer could hear Tai’s responding groan through the wall that separated the two rooms, followed by a few choice words directed at the Huntsman they had been assigned to follow. Summer sighed and pushed herself up onto her hands. She had slept in her combat skirt with Delicate Thorn within arms reach. Iris had told them that they would have an early start when they had arrived the previous day by hover ship, so Summer decided to forego changing so she wouldn’t have to waste any time.

  


She slowly pulled herself out of bed, then fastened her bow and quiver back onto her person. She then trudged over to the washroom to splash some cold water onto her face, jolting herself to fully wake up. When she returned to the room, she noticed that Raven had, somehow, not been affected by Iris’ harsh awakening. Instead, she continued to lay on her side facing away from Summer toward the window, curled into herself under the covers.

  


“Raven.” Summer said her name, slightly louder than her normal speaking voice. She hoped that it would be enough to jolt the other girl awake, but it didn’t seem to work. Summer walked closer to the bed and repeated Raven’s name, this time a bit louder. Once again, it didn’t work. Sighing, Summer steeled herself, she walked over to the other side of the bed and hunched down so that her face was level with Raven’s. She hesitantly reached out towards Raven’s face, her fingers just grazing Raven’s pale clammy skin. As soon as they touched, Raven jolted awake, although less violently than the day before. Her hand jumped up to grasp Summer around the wrist, and she opened her eyes to reveal that they were glazed over and unfocused.

  


Both girls sat in the silence for a couple seconds before Summer spoke up. 

  


“Raven?” She asked, trying to look directly into Raven’s eyes.

  


“Sum-Summer?” Raven stuttered, squinting her eyes as her irises started to gain focus. The grasp she held around Summer’s wrist loosened, allowing Summer to pull her hand away.

  


“Yes?”

  


“You’re okay?”

  


“Yeah, I’m fine.” Summer said, quite confused.

  


“That’s good.”

  


Summer was hopelessly confused. She shook her head, trying to steady her racing mind, “Raven, are you okay?”

  


Summer watched as Raven sat up in the bed. The other girl looked around the room as if she didn’t know where she was. She took a second before she answered, “I’m fine. I’ve been having increasingly... peculiar dreams as of late.”

  


Summer was surprised that Raven had confessed what had been bothering her, “What about?”

  


Raven tilted her head, looking into the distance and squinting her eyes, “I am unsure.”

  


“Oh.”

  


Raven turned to her, “Has Iris already come around to wake us up?” She asked, quickly switching the topic.

  


“Um, yeah.” Summer stammered.

  


“Then we should not leave her waiting,” Raven replied. She then threw her sheets off of her body, revealing that she too had left her clothes on to sleep. She hurried to attach Talon to her hip, then she put on her gauntlets and tied her hair back into its bandana. Without another word, she exited the room, leaving Summer behind to contemplate Raven’s odd behaviour.

  


Summer waited an extra second before following her. She walked out of the room into the hallway, where five other doors lined the walls. The inn they were staying at was small, but appropriately sized relative to the village it served. It boasted six rooms, with a small restaurant and bar downstairs, where Iris and the others were no doubt waiting for her. She rambled down the stairs to see that the other’s had gathered around a wooden table in the centre of the room. A large map of the area had been spread out on the table, and a plate with some pastries had been pushed to the edge of the table to accommodate it. When she went down the last step, the others turned to watch her.

  


“Good of you to join us, Miss. Rose.” Iris said. She was either irritated or welcoming, but Summer couldn’t tell. She quickly joined the group, grabbing a croissant from the plate of pastries, and Iris went back to her briefing.

  


“As I was saying before,” Iris began, “Hunters from the village have reported seeing a large amount of Beowolves amassing in this area.” She pointed towards a spot on the map, about two kilometres south-west of the village.

  


“They seem to have moved into a system of caves carved into the mountainside. At first, the villagers noticed only a couple Grimm, but their numbers have increased greatly within the past few days, so we have been called in to assist in removing them.” Iris stated.

  


Tai spoke first, “So what’s the plan? Go in, clear them out, and we’re home by tonight?” He asked, cracking his knuckles from within his caestus. 

  


Iris turned to look at him, raising one extremely displeased pierced eyebrow, “That would be inadvisable, Mr Xiao Long. While I’m sure you and your teammates are up to the task, we have little to no knowledge of what we will be getting ourselves into. We don’t know the Beowolves’ numbers, or if there are any Alpha’s in the mix. We don’t even know the terrain we will be fighting on, and whether it can be used to our advantage. Today, we will only be scouting the situation. We will return tonight, come up with a plan of attack, and then finish the job tomorrow. Understand?”

  


“Of course, ma'am.” Tai nodded.

  


“Good. We have about an hour’s hike through the forest before we reach our destination. Keep your weapons at the ready at all times, we don’t know what we might encounter.” Iris instructed. Team STRQ nodded in response. They spent the next five minutes stuffing themselves with the pastries before Iris rolled up her map, and lead them outside.

  


The sun was just about to make an appearance over the distant horizon, and the damp chill that had been dispersed through the air awaiting its arrival sank deeply within Summer’s bones. The exhale of her breath made itself known in the air as she pulled her hood up over her head. She then took Delicate Thorn from its place at her back and extended it before retrieving a few arrows from her quiver. She put four of them into her bow hand, holding them between her hand and the grip on the bow. The fifth arrow she brought up to the bowstring, nocking it so that it was ready at a moment’s notice. Ahead of her, Qrow extended Claw to its broadsword form, and Iris unholstered the twin pistols that sat at her thighs, leaving her shotgun and assault rifle still on her back.

  


Iris lead the group through the half-asleep village towards the forest that stood at its western border. As they strode beneath the canopy of the trees, what little light there was almost completely disappeared and it took Summer a couple of minutes to adjust to the new darkness. The forest seemed to be quite old, layers of dead leaves crunching beneath her feet as ferns brushed against her knees. The trees rose to heights of fifty or so metres above them, so tall that when the wind rustled through them they creaked as they swayed from side to side. Other than the creaking of the trees, the forest was as silent as the dead, and Summer couldn’t prevent the shivers that escaped down her spine, or the weariness that she felt as she trudged along with the rest of the group.

  


Ahead of her, Tai blundered through the underbrush of the forest like a blind Goliath. He held his hand spread out with his palm facing upwards in front of him, a small ball of flame floating within his grasp. His head moved every which way, trying to see past the darkness that surrounded them. Meanwhile, the twins moved with silent proficiency, barely making a noise as they crept along the path Iris lead them on.

  


Over the past day, since she had met her, Summer couldn’t help but admire the Huntsman that they had been following. While Iris hadn’t been the leader of her own team (which Taiyang had pointed out as something he remembered from his parents’ old yearbook), she still exuded a commanding presence with no space left for any of Tai’s or Qrow’s nonsense. And she made it seem like it was all so easy too. Summer was big enough to admit to herself that she was jealous, but that didn’t mean she was going to say it aloud anytime soon.

  


Leading the front of the group, Iris raised her hand, signalling to stop. She holstered both of her pistols, then took the map out of a pouch on her hip that was attached to her belt. She unfolded it and walked over to Tai and his ball of flame so that she could see it better.

  


“We’re going to continue the rest of our journey from the treetops.” She stated, folding the map back up again.

  


“What?” Taiyang interjected.

  


Iris marched over to Tai, tall and foreboding. Even though she was still an inch shorter than Tai, she was still menacing enough for him to have to take a step back as she stared directly up into his eyes, “Did I misspeak, Mr Xiao Long?”

  


“No, ma'am.” Tai shook his head.

  


“Good,” Iris nodded, and turned to the rest of the group, “There is a clearing of trees up ahead another half kilometre, which is where we will find our prey. We can use the trees as a place to scout from, without alarming the Beowolves of our presence. Mr Xiao Long and Miss Rose will come with me to the right, the Branwens will go left. Do I make myself clear?”

  


Quiet nods were the only thing that answered her, and then the teenagers started to follow her orders. Off to one side, Qrow kneeled down with his hands clasped, offering a boost for his sister. She placed her foot into his open palms, and he threw her up into the air so that she could grasp onto a low hanging branch. Raven pulled herself up, then reached down to grab Qrow, hoisting him up with one hand. They continued to jump between the branches of the trees, higher and higher until they disappeared into the canopy of leaves. Looking over, Summer noticed that Tai was doing the same for her. She too was boosted up onto a low hanging branch and was just about to turn around to offer a hand to Tai, when she saw that he was climbing the trunk of the tree by himself, digging the metal-plated fingertips of his caestus into the bark. After he joined her, Iris followed them, jumping from tree trunk to tree trunk to propel her upwards. She then gestured to them to follow her, and they made their way through the canopy of tree branches.

  


They continued until they got to the clearing, when Iris told them to find a place amongst the branches, and get comfortable, as they would be staying there until evening. Summer found a large branch that seemed comfortable and sat down with her back against the trunk. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Qrow and Raven poke their heads out of the leaves of a tree on the other side of the clearing. Tai sighed heavily and sat on a branch on Summer’s left. Meanwhile, Iris started to take her guns out of the holsters attached to her back. Summer watched as Iris put each of the guns, realising that she was assembling a sniper rifle. Once she was done, she looked down its scope, getting a closer view of their prey.

  


“Is there anything we should be looking for, ma’am,” Tai asked snidely. Summer sent him a glare, wordlessly telling him to kerb the attitude.

  


Iris just chuckled, “You don’t approve of my methods, Mr Xiao Long.” She stated.

  


“I just don’t like the idea of waiting another day to finish these monsters off. What if they attack the village before then?” Taiyang replied.

  


“Hmm,” Iris hummed in response, “Your gloves seem familiar to me.” She changed the subject.

  


Tai looked down at his hands in surprise, “They were my mother’s.” He whispered, clenching his fists.

  


Iris smiled, “Right, Chi Xiao Long. That’s where I heard your name before. You look like her too, if I remember correctly. You have the same fire in your eyes.”

  


“Did you know her well?”

  


“No, but I didn’t have to. She made herself known.”

  


“So I’ve heard.”

  


“She was brash when she first went to Beacon. Had a nasty penchant for starting fights and landing herself in the medical ward.”

  


Tai chuckled, “Yeah, that’s what Gran said.”

  


“And now that you wear her gloves, I wonder if you’ll share her fate as well.”

  


Tai’s jaw dropped, stunned into silence by Iris’ statement. Summer decided that this was her chance to indiscreetly change the subject.

  


“Is there anything, in particular, we should be looking for?” Summer asked, breaking the uneasy silence.

  


“We should be counting numbers, mostly,” Iris answered, “It will be difficult to know just how many of the Grimm are in the caves, but if we can get a rough estimate that should be enough. Take note if there are any alphas among them, they’ll need to be taken out first. Also, take note if there is any part of the terrain we can use to our advantage, or that can be used against us. Those caves, for example, will likely be very dangerous if we decide to enter them.”

  


“Right.” Summer nodded, focused on her assigned task.

  


“And what of you, Miss Rose?” Iris questioned, turning around to look at Summer through the corner of her eye.

  


“Pardon me?”

  


“A bow is a hunter’s weapon, not a Huntsman’s. Why choose a bow when a gun is readily available to you?”

  


Summer shrugged her shoulders, “I can’t really use a gun.”

  


“Were you not trained to?”

  


Summer chuckled, “Of course I was, I’ve just always been able to shoot better with a bow than I have with a gun. It’s part of my Semblance.”

  


“Explain.”

  


“My Semblance allows me to hit any target I can see as long as I focus hard enough, but I have to feel the projectile in my hand, I have to be able to see its trajectory. Guns are just too… impersonal.”

  


“What happens if you don’t focus hard enough.”

  


“Nothing too bad most of the time, an arrow a couple centimetres off target maybe. Although I have had some mishaps that haven’t ended so well.”

  


Iris looked pensive, “Hmm, you have an interesting responsibility, Miss Rose. I do not envy you.”

  


Summer didn’t know what to say until she suddenly realised something, “Shouldn’t you already know all of this? You got our transcripts when we signed up for the mission, didn’t you?”

  


Iris shrugged her shoulders, “Yes, but I didn’t read them.”

  


“Why not?”

  


“We’re going to be stuck in this tree for the next few hours, we might as well have something to talk about.” Iris murmured, returning to look down the scope of her sniper rifle.

  


Summer decided that there was much more to Iris than she previously assumed.

  


On the opposite side of the clearing, Qrow and Raven were sitting in complete silence, which was only broken by the sound of leaves being ruffled by the wind. A couple of metres away, they heard the crack of a tree branch falling down to the forest floor and the accompanying sound of the squawking birds that were disturbed by it.

  


"This remind you of anything, sis?" Qrow asked Raven, trying to get her to bite onto the hook of conversation. Raven, being Raven, didn't seem to get the hint.

  


Qrow sighed, rolling his eyes, and continued, "You know, sitting in tree branches, scouting a mark. Just like old times. 'Cept today we're just killing Grimm, instead of villages filled with hundreds of innocent civilians."

  


Once again, Raven said nothing. She looked like she was in very deep thought.

  


"Something bothering you, Rae?" Qrow asked, slightly worried for his sister.

  


"I had a dream last night." She replied ominously.

  


"About what?" Qrow questioned.

  


"I don't remember," Raven confessed, "It was like what I see with my Semblance, various probabilities but clearer somehow. But I can't remember what actually happened, only the feelings that went with it."

  


"Must be hard for you," Qrow joked.

  


"Qrow, this is serious," Raven chided him, turning to face him directly to reveal desperate eyes.

  


Qrow realised that whatever Raven wanted to tell him must have been important, "So, what did you feel?"

  


Raven tilted her head, "I felt grief. Deep and lonely. Like I was drowning."

  


Qrow nodded, bringing a hand up to Raven's shoulder, "Well it sounds like it was just a normal nightmare then. Even if it was your Semblance, you see hundreds of outcomes a day that don't pan out, what's the likelihood that these will?" He reassured her.

  


Raven smiled, looking downwards to her fidgeting hands, "You're right, it's probably nothing."

  


She wasn't being very convincing, "I have something that might make you feel better." Qrow nagged, nudging Raven with his shoulder.

  


Raven rolled her eyes, figuring out where her brother was going with this, "We can't do that right now, we're on a mission." She objected, albeit not as harshly as she could have.

  


"Just a few minutes, we'll be back without anyone noticing we were gone."

  


"Qrow-"

  


"C'mon, Rae, it's been months since we stretched our wings." He was getting closer to her breaking. Raven sighed dramatically, trying to fight the smile that was starting to appear at her lips, and Qrow knew that he had her.

  


"Fine." She agreed, rolling her eyes. Qrow barely succeeded to quiet his exclamation of his excitement.

  


Slowly, he let go of the tree branch and allowed himself to fall forwards toward the ground. Raven watched as Qrow transformed halfway, quickly following suit.

  


Back across the clearing, Summer watched as two chattering corvids took flight across the light of the rising autumn sun, completely unaware of their specific peculiarity.

  


Summer spent the rest of the day in the same spot she had originally settled in. At noon, she ate an apple that she had brought along with her. The flow of stilted conversation between herself, Iris, and occasionally Tai prevented her from going insane from the silence. She wondered if the twins were getting along as well.

  


Throughout the day, she continuously wrote notes in her head of what she observed. There were about three dozen Beowolves, yet here seemed to be no Alphas. Going into the caves to attack was suicide, so it would be beneficial to lure them out and attack from within the treetops.

  


As the sun was just beginning to set, Iris decided that they had been there long enough and that it was time to return to the village. She signalled the twins, and they went on their way. The walk back to the inn just added to the heavy weight of fatigue that had set deep into their bones; the early wake up combined with the long day added to the fact that they didn’t have much to eat. Their return to the inn was greeted by a few worried villagers, who Iris quietly calmed down so they would return to their homes. The innkeepers had made them a meal of a hearty lamb stew, free of charge, that the tired teenagers made quick work of, while each of them relayed their reports of the day to Iris.

  


“You’ve all done well,” Iris remarked after Qrow had finished telling her what he had seen, “I’ll spend the night planning our attack, but you all deserve a good rest. Go up to bed, we’ll have another early start tomorrow morning, although not as early as today.”

  


The four of them nodded, quietly said goodnight to her, and trudged up the stairs to their rooms.

  


 

  


_Day 3_

  


The time on Raven’s scroll blinked to 1:13 am, but she didn’t notice. She couldn’t sleep, or rather, she wouldn’t let herself sleep. So if sleep wouldn’t come to her, meditation would have to do the job instead. Meditation was something that the tribe had taught her, as a way to mature her Semblance. While Qrow’s was forged in the heat of combat and struggle, her’s evolved through quiet contemplation and intense reflection. Which is why she decided to practice it once more. Qrow told her not to worry about what she had forgotten in her dreams. But the nagging feeling at the back of her head still continued, pulsing against her mind as if trying to escape.

  


What if Qrow was _wrong_?

  


Inside her mind’s eye, a web of strings spread out before her. Thousands of outcomes, each with constantly fluctuating probabilities, which were not helped by her brother sleeping away in the next room. Sighing, she attempted to concentrate harder on the web and began to follow a string that lead her to a family asleep in their house on the east end of town.

  


_Baby cries. Father gets up. Holds baby to chest. Sings words of comfort. Ceiling collapses._

  


_Baby doesn’t cry. Daughter gets up for a glass of water. Red eyes in the window. Blood on the living room carpet._

  


_Daughter stays asleep. Mother goes to the washroom. Watches the village burn. Her scream never awakens the others._

  


Raven stumbled out of the trance, panting heavily. A large amount of sweat had started to trickle down her forehead. She caught her breath, closed her eyes, and returned to the web. She latched on to another string, the village blacksmith, still working in his forge.

  


_Forge gets too hot. Burns his face._

  


_Forge is fine. Remove the bucket of molten steel from the flames. Pour into mould. Growls in the distance. Gets out in time._

  


_Doesn’t hear the growls. It’s too late._

  


Once again she was thrown out of the web. She steeled herself once more and determinedly returned. Instead of focusing on one string, she let herself wander among them all, trying to latch on to something that felt familiar.

  


_Qrow wakes first. He hears the screams. Leaps before thinking. He is overwhelmed._

  


_Summer wakes first. Awakens the others. Too much going on. She never sees the Beowolf’s claws. Her scroll falls out of her pocket. 1:38 am._

  


_Taiyang wakes first. The others soon after him. Not soon enough. His grief-stricken rage consumes him. So do his own flames._

  


She brought herself out of the trance and came to a final conclusion: The Beowolves would be attacking within the next few minutes. She leapt out of bed and ran over to Summer, shaking the other girl awake.

  


“What the-” Summer stammered, blinking quickly to get the sleep out of her eyes.

  


“They’re attacking tonight Summer, grab your bow.” Raven explained without preamble, thoroughly confusing her still half-asleep teammate.

  


“Raven? What’s happening?”

  


“No time to explain. Grab your weapon, let’s go.” She grabbed Summer by the wrist, hauling her out of bed. Summer just barely had time to wrap her free hand around her bow and quiver before Raven pulled her out of the door. As they made their way outside and across the village to its west end, she was able to properly attach her quiver to her belt. Once they hit the forest’s edge, she made her way onto the roof of a nearby house, bow at the ready.

  


Everything stood still, and nothing happened.

  


“Raven, are you sure-” Summer was about to ask.

  


“Shhh.” Raven silenced her.

  


“Raven-”

  


“Quiet, Summer.” Raven chastised. Her eyes were moving every which way, trying to make something out from the darkness. Raven’s fingers fidgeted on Talon’s hilt, as the multi-selector holster it was sheathed in rotated continuously.

  


“Raven, what is going on?” Summer demanded, out of patience for Raven's weird behaviour.

  


“The dreams weren’t dreams,” Raven explained, “I looked through the web and the strings all ended the same way. The family, the blacksmith, you, Qrow, Taiyang.”

  


Summer shook her head, Raven wasn’t making any sense.

  


“You’re scroll said 1:38 am, what time is it now?” Raven asked.

  


Summer took her scroll out, “It’s 1:29.”

  


Raven visibly calmed, “Then we have enough time.”

  


“Time until what?”

  


“Until the Grimm attack.” Raven replied.

  


A loud howl echoed through the endless night. Both girls started at the sound, grasping their hands tightly around their weapons. Several howls answered the first.

  


“Raven, go get Iris and the boys.” Summer commanded, bringing her bow up to her eyes.

  


“Summer, you can barely see.” Raven replied.

  


“Go!” Summer demanded. Raven hesitated for a second before running off back towards the inn. Summer then picked a different arrow from her quiver, this one tipped with bright orange dust, and let it fly somewhere into the trees. A giant ball of bright orange flame exploded when it finally landed, lighting several trees on fire along with the forest floor. She drew ten arrows and kept them in her drawing hand, nocking one of them and waiting until she saw the first hint of bright red eyes.

  


They came in a wave of snarling and teeth, stampeding their way through the forest floor. The Grimm came to a stop when they reached the flames, allowing Summer to fire off each one of her ten arrows, one after the other, straight into the skulls of an equal number of the Beowolves. Each of them exploded into dark, all-consuming smoke, blocking her view of the others. She waited until the smoke dissipated, grabbing more arrows in the meantime. Six more pairs of red eyes appeared, and she fired off arrow after arrow as fast as she could.

  


“Summer!” She heard Tai shout as her three teammates appeared on the ground in front of her, weapons drawn.

  


“Raven, where’s Iris?” Summer asked.

  


“I couldn’t find her.”

  


“What do you mean you couldn’t find her?” Summer demanded.

  


“She wasn’t in her room.” Raven spat back.

  


“Hey, can we focus here?” Tai said.

  


Summer refocused her mind, “Right, um, Tai you go through the centre, try to split them up but don’t add to the fire. Qrow and Raven, you’re on the left and right flanks. You see any of them escape your reach, point them out to me. Raven, keep us updated on anything that may turn the tide against us. Any and all arrows that you retrieve and send back to me will be greatly appreciated.” She instructed. Her team leapt into action, obeying her orders.

  


Tai drove himself farther and farther beyond the treeline until all Summer could see was the fire of his punches, flickering in the distance. Like she said, he split the group apart, sending them into the waiting weapons of the twins. A larger group of Beowolves were running toward Qrow, so Summer released three arrows tipped with lightning Dust. They landed, and an arc of electricity arced between each arrow, killing several of the Grimm. Qrow raised a thumbs-up in thanks, but Summer couldn’t help but feel as if something was wrong.

  


“Anybody else think that there are more Grimm than we counted?” She asked the others.

  


“That a problem?” Qrow shouted back as he sliced through three Beowolves with one strike from his scythe, “I think we’re doing pretty well.”

  


“It’s too easy.” She replied.

  


“Only you would think that Summer.” Qrow joked.

  


“Not the time, Qrow.” Summer chastised him, firing off an arrow at a Beowolf that managed to get past them. Suddenly, she saw something move out of the corner of her eye.

  


“Ursae, coming from the south.” She yelled to her teammates, “Regroup back to me.” The others retreated to the house she was standing, forming a tight circle around her. She fired off three ice-arrows, making a barrier around them. Not very strong, but strong enough to lend them time. She then jumped down onto the ground.

  


Tai was hunched over himself, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath, “Did you say Ursae?”

  


“Yes.”

  


“What’s the plan, Sum?”

  


Thoughts raced through Summer’s head, “We can’t kill them all, so we prioritise. We can get the civilians out of their homes and send them towards the inn, then send a distress signal. We might not be able to save the village, but we can try to get as many people out as we can.”

  


The others nodded in agreement.

  


“Right. Raven, you and I are going to head to the south end. We can make an ice wall with our Dust, which should give us some time to move the civilians. Qrow and Tai, you head north and start directing everyone toward the inn.”

  


They all jumped back onto the roof just as the Beowolves broke through the wall of ice. Summer and Raven ran towards the south, leaping over the rooftops of the houses, hopefully waking some of the people living within them.

  


“Summer!” Iris shouted, from down below on the street, her fully assembled sniper rifle in her hands. Summer paused, gestured to Raven, and they both headed down to her.

  


“Iris!” Summer greeted as she ran toward her, skipping the formalities.

  


“What is going on here?” Iris demanded.

  


“A… Grimm attack, ma’am?”

  


“Why didn’t you wake me?”

  


“We couldn’t find you in your room.”

  


“This was reckless, Summer, I expected more from you,” Iris stated, shaking her head, “Go back to the inn, I’ve called for a hovercraft to come pick us up. You will face the consequences of your actions once we return to Beacon.”

  


“But we’re trying to save the village.” Summer defended herself.

  


“The village you’ve destroyed.” Iris accused, pointing towards the forest’s edge, where many of the trees had gone up in flames, and the fire was beginning to inch towards the houses.

  


“We can still save the civilians.” Summer argued.

  


“Get back to the inn, rookies.” Iris demanded.

  


“No.” Summer fumed. Iris was taken aback but didn’t say anything in return. Summer turned to Raven, “Let’s go.”

  


Raven nodded, and they ran southward once more, leaving Iris behind them. As they ran through the streets, they banged on every door they could, shouting at the civilians to get to the inn in the centre of the village. When they got to the south end, Summer transformed Delicate Thorn into its bladed staff form and began attacking the Ursae that had already breached the village’s borders. Raven worked alongside her, clearing each Grimm with one strike of her flaming sword before leaping at the next one. Once the made their way to the edge of the village, Raven swapped her red sword for one made of Ice Dust. Starting at one end of the row of houses, Raven stuck her sword into the ground and ran, dragging Talon behind her. In her trail, a large wall of ice a couple metres high sprouted upwards. Summer jumped onto another rooftop and Delicate Thorn collapsed back into a bow. She released her entire barrage of Ice arrows, equidistant apart along the inside of Raven’s ice wall, strengthening it so it would buy them more time.

  


When they were done, they returned to the inn, knocking on any doors that they previously missed. When they approached the inn, they saw that Qrow and Tai had already returned.

  


“Qrow! Tai! Is that everyone?” Summer asked as she ran up to them, Raven following her.

  


“We’re pretty sure we got them all. Do we know when help is arriving?” Tai replied.

  


“I don’t know. Iris called for a hovercraft. Have you seen her?”

  


“Oh yeah, we’ve seen her.” Qrow said, leaning on Claw to help support his weight, “She was ten seconds away from knocking us out for disobeying her orders.”

  


“Same here.” Summer said.

  


“What’d you do to piss her off?”

  


“Same thing you did, I think.” Summer joked. She almost smiled, but then realised that it was completely inappropriate given the situation. Behind them, she heard the sound of the ice wall breaking. No time for them to catch their breath.

  


“So, Sum, anymore good ideas?” Tai asked.

  


“We stay here, close to the inn. We make a wall and we don’t let anything passed us.” Summer said.

  


“Agreed,” replied Iris from behind her. Summer turned around in shock.

  


“But-”

  


“Your behaviour will be discussed in detail once we get back to Beacon. For now, we should focus on protecting these people.” Iris interrupted, “we only need to hold them off for another half hour.”

  


“Half an hour? Sounds easy,” Qrow said, shrugging his shoulders.

  


“Are you sure you won’t get too tired, brother?” Raven asked, egging him on.

  


“Why my dear sister, I do believe you’ve provided me with a challenge.” He replied, steadying his grip around Claw, a second away from jumping into action.

  


Summer stopped him, “One second, guys, we need a plan first. Tai, I’m giving you permission to go all out, the village is already on fire anyways. Just try to keep the flames away from the inn. Qrow, Raven, you do what you do best, just make sure to watch out for each other. Iris and I will stay here, we do better at a distance.”

  


The other three left with a nod while Iris and Summer jumped onto the roof of the inn. The Beowolves had cleared the forest, and they were being attacked both from the south and the west. The twins took the Ursae coming from the south, while Tai went to attack the Beowolves, with Summer supporting him from a distance. He punched flames into the air with pure destructive intent, setting houses and trees alike on fire. It prevented the Beowolves from swarming him completely and gave Summer the opportunity to pick them off from afar. She hesitated a glance towards Raven and Qrow, who seemed to be holding their own quite well. Summer was quite sure that they had turned it all into a game, keeping score of which of them killed the most Ursae.

  


Summer scoured the battlefield, looking to see if there was anything they had missed. As she did so, she noticed a group of Beowolves that had made their way around the flames in the forest and were coming from the south-west corner past the borders of the village.

  


She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted, “Qrow! South-west corner!” He quickly broke away from his sister and followed Summer’s direction. 

  


She wasn’t able to see what happened next.

  


As Summer had told him to, Qrow rushed over the south-east corner of the village, spotting the Beowolves she must have seen from her perch on the inn’s roof. He readied his scythe in advance, switching his grip so he could take the group of the Grimm out in just one strike.

  


It happened in slow motion.

  


From behind him, Raven shouted his name. He turned his head to the right to see an Ursa charging toward him, large paw in the air ready to strike. He stopped in his tracks, unable to move. Suddenly, he was pushed out of the way of its charge. Claw was forced out of grasp so that he could catch himself with his hands, and before he could turn around to see who had pushed him, his sister’s cry of pain resounded through the air. The Ursa disappeared to ashes in front of him, and Raven collapsed to her knees, her right hand still clasped tightly around Talon’s hilt, her left hand cradling her stomach.

  


Qrow raced over to his sister, supporting her body so that she didn’t fall to the ground, “Raven!”

  


The Grimm surrounded them, but Qrow didn’t seem to notice.

  


“Qrow, the Grimm,” Raven strangled out, trying to get up. She groaned as pain swept through her body, forcing her back to the ground. Qrow looked around, trying to figure out what to do.

  


“Don’t worry, Rae, I got it.” He comforted her and reached to grab Talon’s hilt from her hand. He took it from her limp fingers, and wielded it with two hands, standing up to face his foes. While he had used his sister’s weapon before, the weight behind it was different from what he was used to. The defence he put up to block the attacks from the Ursae and Beowolves surrounding him were weak, and his responding attacks were even weaker. He was almost knocked back on the ground when Tai came in to rescue them. He took the Grimm out with a couple punches each, leaving him breathless by the end of the fight. Qrow knelt back down by his sister, who had curled into herself on the ground.

  


“She okay?” Tai asked.

  


“I-I-I-” Qrow stammered as he tried to get his shaking arms under Raven’s body to lift her up. His muscles wailed at the strain of trying to pick her up while under so much stress.

  


“Qrow,” Tai interjected, reaching out to grasp the other boy’s shoulder in an attempt to steady him, “You grab her sword, I’ll carry her. We’re going to need you to fight off the Grimm.”

  


“Okay.” Qrow’s eyes were unfocused, but he seemed to understand what Tai was saying. He picked up Talon, sheathing the sword so that Tai could pick Raven up. She looked quite pale, and could just barely keep her eyes open. When raven was settled into Tai’s arms, Qrow handed Talon back to her. Her limp arms could barely wrap themselves around it, so Qrow moved her arms for her. He then picked up Claw, and they made their way back to the inn. Qrow ploughed his way through the Grimm with deadly efficiency. Once they got the inn, Tai barreled his way through the door. The villagers inside moved out of his way like a wave, creating a path for him to a table in the middle of the room. He set Raven down on top of it as gracefully as possible.

  


“I-is there a doctor in here?” He stammered, surprised to see the amount of blood that had seeped into his clothes. A man and a woman pushed themselves through the crowd.

  


“What happened to her?” The man said, checking over her wounds.

  


“She was mauled by an Ursa.” Tai mumbled, unable to take his eyes off the blood on his arms. He zoned out as the doctor asked for any cloth they could use to put pressure on the wound.

  


Behind him, Summer barged into the inn, “Is she okay?” She panicked. Tai had just enough sense left in him to turn around and block her view, shielding her small body with his larger one.

  


“Get out of the way, Tai.” Summer pleaded, trying to push her way through him. He couldn’t move.

  


“Turn around, Sum. You don’t want to look at this.”

  


“Tai, please.”

  


“Summer, we still have fifteen minutes before help arrives. Trust me. You’re needed out there more than you’re needed in here.” He assured her, forcibly turning her around and leading her out the door. Qrow was still outside, fighting the Grimm like a one-man army, with support from Iris up on the rooftops. The flames grew higher and higher as they consumed more houses, but the Grimm did not seem to be deterred. Summer extended Delicate Thorn, took one final breath of determination, and joined the fray, Tai running after her.

  


It was a rough fifteen minutes. All four of them were close to collapsing by the time the hovercrafts arrived, like heavily armed angels descending from the heavens. Their guns took care of the rest of the Grimm before the craft were able to land. The Huntsman and the three teenagers then rushed the villagers into the hovercrafts, making sure that Raven got attention from the emergency medical staff that were on board. Summer, Tai, Qrow, and Iris were the last to get on the craft before it lifted off, leaving the burning village behind to raze itself to the ground.

  


Summer and Tai hovered around Raven as she was tended to. The doctor sutured the claw marks on her abdomen shut before wrapping it in gauze, then he put her on an IV drip. Words of comfort and assurances that their teammate would be okay fell on deaf ears. After Raven was in a stable condition, the doctor looked over Summer and Tai, asking questions that neither of them remembered, nor did they remember the answers they gave to him in return. Blankets were wrapped around their shoulders and they accepted them without question.

  


Qrow sat in the corner on the opposite side of the ship, his knees curled up to his chest, shivering. Summer glanced over at him, then nudged Tai to follow her. They stood up on wobbly knees, and slowly made their way through the throng of displaced civilians over to their lonely teammate.

  


“Why are you all the way over here Qrow?” Summer asked him worriedly.

  


“Area of effect is five metres. I didn’t want to hurt her.” He stammered through his shivering, his skinny body convulsing violently. The other two sat down on either side of him. Tai brought his arm around Qrow’s shoulder, bringing him closer to his body so Qrow could share the heat from his blanket. Summer followed suit, leaning her head on Qrow’s shoulder, and bringing her other arm over to cover his chest in a sideways hug. Neither of their gazes shifted from the prone form of their broken teammate on the other side of the ship.

  


“She’s gonna be okay, Qrow.” Summer reassured him, mumbling into his shoulder and squeezing him tightly.

  


“She didn’t tell me who won,” He replied. The others didn’t understand what he was talking about.

  


They continued to watch over Raven from afar until the heaviness of sleep began to sift through their bodies, weighing them down. Their eyelids followed suit, finally closing no more than ten minutes later.

  


Team STRQ deserved their rest.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew! Finishing this chapter was like a breath of fresh air because holy shit it was _long_. I hope this explains my extended absence. Getting this chapter out, combined with going to school was a lot of work, which is why most of it was written within the past few days since I'm currently on break. I don't know if any of my future chapters will as long as this one, but I am trying to increase my chapter size to at least greater than 2500 words. This is the longest single thing I have ever written, so I'm pretty happy with myself right now.
> 
> This was an insane chapter to write, and I've touched on the topic of STRQ's first field mission before. I hope this did it justice.
> 
> As always, some notes:
> 
>   1. I realised after writing this chapter, that I never fully described what Iris Regalia looks like. In my mind, she is a cross between Gwendoline Christie and Zarya from Overwatch, except her hair is a darker purple instead of bright pink. She wears a purple tank top that matches the colour of her hair, as well as black cargo pants that are tucked into black combat boots. She carries two dual pistols, an assault rifle, and a shotgun that can be assembled into a sniper rifle. She has a piercing in her left eyebrow and left nostril, and has five piercings in her left ear, but only three in her right. Her emblem is a crown with a bullet hole in it, tattooed onto her right shoulder.
>   2. Taiyang has his mother's name because he lives with his maternal grandmother, and everything was just easier that way. Her mother's full name was Chihong Xiao Long (Chihong meaning crimson in Chinese if Google Translate is right, if not please tell me) and his Father's name was Hickory Dale. I like the idea that Tai took after his mother because mama's boys FTW.
>   3. Taiyang's weapon is a pair of caestus gloves that were once his mothers but were slightly modified to fit his hands. They are named Lin-Yan (meaning Scale-Flame in Chinese if Google translate is correct, again please tell me if I'm wrong). They are embroidered with fire Dust, so he can punch flames out of his hands, which goes along with his dragon theme. More on his semblance later.
>   4. Summer's Semblance was revealed. She can hit any target as long as she can focus on it, as well as touch the projectile in her hands. This sometimes doesn't go as well as planned.
>   5. Just to clarify, ST_Q are pretty much in total shock after the mission. I might have been pretty brutal to them.
> 

> 
> An update on statistics: This story has reached a combined hit count of 2500 so as always, thanks for reading. And extra double triple thanks to those who have favourite, kudoed, bookmarked, reviewed, or subscribed.


	12. hope

The ticking of the clocktower grated in Summer’s mind, sending her into a nervous wreck that had increased tenfold since when she had walked into Ozpin’s office ten minutes ago. She sat in a less-than-comfortable chair on one side on the headmaster’s desk, irritable tapping her fingers on the underside of her seat while he finished drinking his mug of coffee. Silence has always been off-putting to Summer, but the ticking was enough to send her into insanity.

  


Finally, Ozpin put his mug back down on the table and leant back into his seat. Steepling his fingers beneath his chin, he stared at Summer over the tops of his round glass, “I’m sure you know why I called you in here today, Miss Rose.”

  


Summer broke away from his gazing, looking down at her knees, “I think I can guess, sir.”

  


“Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

  


Summer sighed, shaking her head, “No, sir.”

  


More ticking filled the room… tick… tock… tick… tock.

  


“This has never been the most favoured part of my job,” Ozpin confessed, leaning back into his chair like a dramatic teenager, “I became a professor so I could teach, not hand out judgement from an ivory tower.”

  


Summer looked back up at the headmaster, confused, “Pardon me, sir?”

  


Ozpin stood up and took his scroll out of his pocket, placing it onto his desk. When the scroll connected to the surface, a holoscreen popped up, displaying information that Summer couldn’t read, but she was able to hazard a guess about who it concerned.

  


“Team STRQ is formed from a group of brash, arrogant, and unpredictable children who are not yet fit to become adults, let alone licensed Huntsmen and Huntresses,” Ozpin recited from the screen before him. Summer winced in her seat as if struck by a blow to the head. 

  


Ozpin continued, “While they were able to prevent the death of every single civilian living in the village we were sent to protect, they did so while causing countless property damage, as well sustaining multiple personal injuries, both physical and psychological. It is my personal recommendation that Team STRQ be forced to repeat their first year at Beacon Academy or, if worse comes to worse, that they are expelled from the institution.”

  


Now that hurt worse than a rapier wasp’s sting, and Summer was deathly allergic to those.

  


“How is Miss Branwen faring these days? Has she recovered from her injuries?” Ozpin asked.

  


Summer shrugged her shoulders, “She’s out of the infirmary, but the doctor’s told her to limit all activity until they say that she’s fully healed. She’s not allowed to participate in sparring class until then. So she’s… being Raven.”

  


“Yes,” Ozpin chuckled, “She does seem to be quite difficult to get along with. What about your other teammates?”

  


“What about them, sir?”

  


Ozpin shrugged his shoulders, gesturing towards the holoscreen with Iris’ report written on it, “Well I could continue to read Miss Regalia’s rather unfavourable report about your team’s performance. But I’d rather hear it from you, instead. How are your other teammates doing?”

  


“Pretty well, considering the circumstances,” Summer admitted, “Tai is at Raven’s every beck and call, trying to kerb her moodiness. Qrow was probably hit the worst, and he was pretty quiet when we came back, but he seems to be opening up again.”

  


“That’s good to hear,” Ozpin nodded his head, “And I’m sure that you’ve all gone to your required counselling sessions.”

  


“Yes, sir. Tai and I had to drag Qrow kicking and screaming, but he came out of it better than before.” Summer chuckled at the memory.

  


Ozpin smiled and sat back down in his chair, “You seem quite fond of them.”

  


“I am, sir. They’re like… family to me. A dysfunctional one, anyways.”

  


Another beat of silence passed through the room, once again filled by the ticking of the clock.

  


“Do you agree with Miss Regalia’s analysis of your team, Summer?”

  


Summer paused to think, cocking her head to the side. She squinted her eyes, looking back on the past couple months of being with her team, “Yes… and no.”

  


Ozpin raised an eyebrow, “If you could explain, please.”

  


“It’s true what she said: Tai is one of the most arrogant people I’ve ever met, Qrow tends to run head first into every fight without thinking first, and I barely know Raven’s opinion of _me_ , let alone what she’s going to do at any given point in time, or if she’s going to follow any orders I give her. But there’s so much more to them.” She explained to the headmaster as if she and her team were on trial.

  


And, well, they technically were.

  


“Is that so?”

  


Summer nodded vigorously, a smile exploding onto her face, “Iris spent all of 36 hours with us, but I’ve been living with these people for the past five months. I’ve spent almost every second of every day with them, and I know that they can do better.” She paused, staring straight into Ozpin’s eyes.

  


“I know that for all his arrogance and showboating, deep down all Tai wants to do is help people who aren’t as strong as him,” She continued, leaning further forward with every word “I know that Qrow has been standing in his sister’s shadow all his life, and his brashness is just him trying to get away from her and discover who he is without her. And even though I don’t know everything that happened to the twins in the past, I know that they grew up without parents, and without a lot of kindness. I know that, even though Raven is stubborn and closed off if I continue to show her kindness and trust, she will give it back in return.”

  


She stopped her tirade, settling back into her chair, “They all can become excellent Huntsmen sir, if given the chance.”

  


“And what about you?” Ozpin asked.

  


Summer pointed to herself, incredulous, “Me?”

  


Ozpin nodded, “Yes, you.” He repeated.

  


“I… am completely unsure of my abilities, as a fighter and as a leader. I don’t speak up in class, so my professors don’t think I’m listening. I sometimes stutter when giving orders to my team, and I trip over my own feet way more often than I would like to admit.” Summer said, looking back down at her knees, “I know that I will never be as vicious as Raven, or as strong as Tai, or as fast as Qrow. But I didn’t come here to become stronger.”

  


“Then why did you come here, Summer?”

  


“Despite growing up with three older brothers, I always used to be alone,” Summer bit her lip, “That is until I convinced my father to let me go to Flare, and I suddenly felt like I was part of something bigger than myself. The day after graduation I missed that feeling so much that I applied to Beacon without my father’s permission, and I never looked back. I’ve learned a lot since coming to Beacon, and I’ve grown so much more. I can’t promise that I’ll stop stuttering, or that I’ll suddenly become more coordinated. But I’ve found something that I want to be a part of, and I want my team to be with me.”

  


“Do you think you’ll become a good Huntress?”

  


“By myself? Probably not. But with them, I think I have a pretty good chance.” Summer confessed, nodding to herself as a smile appeared on her face.

  


She looked back up to Professor Ozpin, whose lips quirked into a half-smile, “Very well, then.” Without pausing, he brought his fingers up to the holoscreen, pressing the trash icon in the bottom right corner of the screen. Iris’ report disappeared from the display, never to be seen again.

  


“Professor?”

  


“I have been a professor at Beacon for almost twenty years. I have been headmaster here for nine of them. Among all that time, I have never met a person who believes as much in the good of others as you do,” Ozpin said.

  


He leant forward onto his desk, as if about to tell Summer a secret, “I was never going to expel you, Summer. Truthfully, I don’t believe in the practice. And although there are rules put in place for a situation such as this, they are rules that I do not necessarily have to follow.”

  


Ozpin stood up, grabbing his cane from where it rested on his desk. He turned around to face the window, looking out over the Beacon campus, “I must admit that I had some... reservations about you and your team before you came in, but let me assure you that those reservations have nearly disappeared. However, there still must be some sort of consequences for the actions of you and your team. So here is my proposition: I’ll wave your final examination coming up, only if you and your team retake them before the beginning of next semester. If you impress me, you’ll be allowed to continue to your second year of Beacon. If not… well, we’ll figure that out if we get there.”

  


Summer sat stunned in her chair, mouth agape for a startling amount of time before she finally came back to her sense, “Thank you, sir.”

  


Ozpin turned around and walked toward her chair until he stood towering over her, “Do not mistake this as charity, Miss Rose. You and your team will need to work extremely hard to catch up with the others. Mr and Miss Branwen have already submitted their requests for lodging over the winter-spring break. I suggest you do the same and convince Mr Xiao Long to do as well.”

  


Summer stood up excitedly, pushing her chair back, “Of course, sir. I’ll go tell my team the news right now, we won’t let you down I swear,” she was just about to turn around to leave when she remembered her manners, “Thank you, Professor.”

  


Summer skipped towards the elevators and pressed the button to go down. The doors opened and she entered the elevator, turning back to look at the headmaster.

  


Ozpin looked back at her, “Remember, Miss Rose, I have given you hope. Now it’s up to you to use it.”

  


Summer nodded in understanding as the doors closed in front of her, and sent her downwards to the base of the tower. When the doors reopened she raced out of them, almost bumping into people looking to take the elevator up. She stumbled, quickly apologised to them, and then continued to run across campus toward the dormitories. Even though she should have felt tired after running halfway, the energy she gained from the good news she had just received was enough to propel her forward. When she got to the dorm, she didn’t even wait for the elevator, instead, she ran up the three flights of stairs, taking each step twice at a time.

  


She burst through the door of Team STRQ’s dorm room gasping for breath. Her teammates turned to look at her while she bent over with her hands on her knees, taking a second before beginning to talk. Qrow and Raven were sitting on her bed, each drinking a cup of tea from Raven’s tea set. Raven sat leant back on her headboard, dressed only in a sports bra from the waist up, coupled with the bandages that were still wrapped around her abdomen. Taiyang was standing. He looked like he had been pacing ever since Summer had left for Ozpin’s office and he looked like he had only just stopped when she had returned thirty seconds ago.

  


The three of them watched in silence, staring at Summer as she panted. Finally, the quiet was too much for Taiyang, “So? What happened?” He asked.

  


Summer raised her index finger, indicating that she needed another minute to breathe.

  


“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tai panicked. He put his head in his hands and started to pace again, “That means something bad, doesn’t it? Ozpin’s kicking us out, right? Fuckin’ multiple hells, Gran is gonna disown me.” He continued to ramble as walked back and forth across the room.

  


Finally Summer was able to breathe properly again, “Tai, we’re fine.” She burst out, unable to stop herself from laughing.

  


Tai stopped in his path, “What?” He asked, incredulous.

  


“I said we’re-” Summer was about to repeat herself before a large body collided into her. Tai picked her up around the waist, spinning her around as he celebrated the good news.

  


“We’re not getting expelled? Or getting held back?” Tai asked, still holding her up in the air.

  


“No to the first. It depends on the second.”

  


“What d’you mean it depends?”

  


Summer looked around the room, “Um, Tai? Could you put me down?”

  


“Oh right.” Tai moved her backwards, so her feet were standing on a desk chair instead of floating in mid-air. All eyes were on her. Oddly, they were looking up at her instead of down.

  


Summer began playing with her fingers, “I talked to Ozpin. He was never gonna expel us in the first place, but us progressing to the second year comes with a bit of a caveat.”

  


“What kind of caveat?” Raven spoke from her place on her bed. She looked as worried as Tai and Qrow were about what their fate would be.

  


Summer drew a large breath and loudly exhaled, “Professor Ozpin is waving our finals, on the caveat we retake them before next semester. If we do well enough, then we’ll progress to second year.”

  


The room fell to silence as Summer teammates contemplated the offer that Ozpin had given them. Qrow and Raven looked at each other in silent conversation as Taiyang was having his own debate from within his mind, his inner monologue written on his face. Summer just stood there, waiting for her teammates to speak again.

  


Qrow was the one to break the silence, “This is… good, right?”

  


Summer turned to look at him, nodding assuredly, “I think it’s the best offer we could get, giving the circumstances.” She said.

  


The room turned to silence once more. Summer decided to break it, “We can all stay here over break. Qrow, you and Raven have already applied to stay in the dorms. Tai, you and I should do the same. We’ll pool our resources, find our weaknesses, and support each other with our strengths. Ozpin is throwing us a bone here, and I think we should go after it.”

  


More silence. It was almost as bad as the incessant ticking.

  


“You really think we got a chance with this, Sum?” Tai asked, quite skeptic.

  


Summer sighed, wracking her brain for something to say. When the words finally came to her, they fell out of her mouth like a waterfall, “Look, guys, there is nobody else who believes in this team more than I do. I honestly think that you all have the potential to be amazing Huntsmen. All I ask is that you believe in me the way that I believe in you. That you put trust into me as your leader to see this through to an end where we’re all happy, and we’re all still at Beacon. I know that I can do this. I know that _we_ can do this.”

  


Silence for a final beat. Raven was the one to break it, “So what do you suggest we do, Summer Rose?”

  


Summer smiled, a little quirk at the corner of her mouth. The answer was obvious. 

  


“We change.”

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is brought to you by Vinpap, who requested the word prompt "hope". I got the overall theme of this chapter directly from RWBY. Specifically the quote:
> 
> _However, the smallest spark of hope is enough to ignite change._
> 
> Which is from the first episode of V1. This chapter wraps up the "trilogy" of the field mission chapters which, in chronological order are _field_ , _needle_ , and _hope_. If I was writing everything in chronological order, this would probably the final chapter of STRQ Volume 1: Summer Rose.
> 
> I don't have any extra notes for this chapter, I think I would just like to leave it here.


	13. decisive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the chapter where the work lives up to its name, as well as a rating change.
> 
> Um....
> 
> This... is... smut? **LIKE NC-17 EXPLICIT-ISH SMUT SO, YOU KNOW, READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION OR WHATNOT**
> 
> I honestly did not see this coming.
> 
> Enjoy.

From across the ballroom, Tai watched on as Summer and Qrow glided across the dance floor, forcing others around them to make room for their bodies. While it was obvious that Summer knew what she was doing, Qrow had never properly learned to dance and Tai could hear Summer’s non-stop giggling as toes were stepped on, apologies were made, and the process was repeated over and over again. Both of them had already imbibed quite a few drinks and were comparatively tipsy.

  


Summer continued to laugh as Qrow held his hand out for her to spin. As she did so, the skirt of her dress came up to hit him in the legs. She stopped spinning when the world became blurry and distorted from her dizziness, and Qrow held onto her while she regained her bearings. They then continued to dance around the room, red-faced from a combination of laughter and liquor, as glares from other dancers that they happened to bump into followed them.

  


Tai couldn’t fault them for their over-zealous celebratory mood. This was the first end-of-year banquet that they were able to attend over three years at Beacon, and all that happened over the past six months was enough to want to have one night of reckless happiness. He probably would have joined them, if his date hadn’t asked if they could go and sit down, and he decided that it was best to join her.

  


He turned to his left to look at Raven. She sat in the chair next to him, staring across the room. Tai tried to follow her eyes to see what she was looking at, but it didn’t seem to be anything in particular. In her hand, she held a wine glass containing the last droplets of some red wine she had been sipping over the course of the evening. Her fingers tapped against the stem of the glass, shaking its contents. She had asked if they could go sit down a few minutes ago, citing that the heels she wore were starting to make her uncomfortable. Summer had suggested that she just remove them and return to dancing, but Tai knew that there was more to it. He followed Raven and sat down with her, content to remain by her side until she decided what she wanted to do.

  


It wasn’t that Raven didn’t enjoy coming to the dances. She had spent an entire day out with Summer picking out her own dress and matching jewellery. She hadn’t complained one bit when Qrow and Tai had been forced out of the dorm room so that the two girls could get ready. There was no eye-rolling or sarcasm when Summer sat her down in a chair while she wrangled Raven’s hair into a fancy up-do, and completed her look with sharp black eyeliner and blood-red lipstick that matched her eyes. 

  


The truth was that Raven could be as elegant as she was stubborn when she wanted to. On their way to the ballroom, she walked in her four-inch heels with unmatched grace, smiling to herself when she earned the jealous stares of other boys and Tai glared at them in response. When Raven and Taiyang danced together, she waltzed across the dance floor as if she was born into the upper echelons of Atlesian high society. It was almost ironic that she could fit so seamlessly into the part of society she was once disgusted by and still vehemently criticised for their excess and pageantry, but maybe that was part of why she did it.

  


Wwhen the waltzing stopped, however, and gave way to more uncultured music, and when her peers were on the verge of tipsy and outright drunk while she was still comparatively sober, that was when she had decided that it wasn’t worth her time anymore, and Tai was all too happy to follow her. He relished in her presence more than he would like to admit, and much more than she would like him to.

  


A gentle nudge from her elbow into his ribs shook him out of his thoughts, and he focused his eyes on looking at her, “Is it alright if we…” She asked, nodding her head towards the exit of the ballroom in an unfinished question.

  


“Of course.” Tai replied. He grabbed her hand within his and stood up, helping her to do so as well. He looked around the room for Summer and Qrow so that he could tell them they were leaving. The two of them were over at the bar, ordering another drink while embroiled in tipsy conversation with some other people. Tai decided to not even bother, and he led Raven across the room towards the exit.

  


When they walked out into the chilly end of autumn air, Raven immediately shivered, and Taiyang raced to take off his suit jacket and drape it around her shoulders. She then placed a hand on his shoulder and used him for balance as she took off her heels, dropping a few inches in height so that they could no longer see eye to eye. He loosened his tie and untucked his shirt, then bent down to pick up her shoes. He held them in his right hand and held her own hand in his left. She lifted up the hem of her dress so that it wouldn’t scrape across the ground, and began to walk with him across campus. It took him a second to realise that they were heading towards the docks, instead of back to their dorm room, but he assumed that Raven knew what she was doing.

  


As they came up to the cliffside that overlooked the shining city of Vale the wind picked up, blowing through the skirt of Raven’s dress. Below them, waves crashed violently against the foot of the cliff, warning everyone of their danger. Despite the treacherous fall, Raven sat down at the edge of the cliff, swinging her feet over its depth like she had no care in the world. Tai sat next to her, looking towards Vale.

  


“How many bob-pins do you think Summer used in my hair?” Raven asked as she reached up to her head, searching for one such pin with her fingers before deftly plucking it from her hair, careful to make sure it wasn’t tangled and didn’t pull.

  


Tai reached up to help her. “Enough to make it defy gravity.” He joked as he found his own bobby pin, plucking it out with less grace and earning a distasteful glare from Raven. He apologised under his breath, finding another pin and picking out with more finesse than before. They continue until her hair was back to cascading down her shoulders, and a small pile of bobby pins that had accumulated between them. The wind off the water below ran through her hair and Raven shivered again. Tai suddenly realised that goosebumps had begun to appear on his arms under his shirt. He moved his body so that he had one leg bent up behind Raven, and the other still dangling over the cliffside. He then wrapped his arms around her so that they could share each other's warmth as they continued to look out over the chaotic water.

  


On impulse, he leant in to kiss her on the cheek. A question she replied to with a kiss on his lips. Kissing Raven had always been like this: a series of questions and answers always to be answered by her. He would take the lead in engaging anything, but it was always up to her to choose where it went. They got lost in one another until the clock tower began it’s hourly chime, making them jump a bit in each other’s arms while it struck eleven times. But even with the sudden interruption, neither of them could ignore the shift in the air. They were stuck in the silence the ending of the clock chime left behind, glancing at each other’s lips and into each other’s eyes with silent questions and conversation.

  


“We should get back to the dorm.” She suggested.

  


“Um, yeah.” He agreed, slightly dumbfounded. Before he could collect his thoughts, she stood up and took off without even looking back, running towards the dormitories. He watched her in amusement and leapt up to give chase, leaving their pile of bobby pins behind to be blown into the water.

  


As he chased her across campus, he never tried to actually catch up to her even though he could. He only finally caught up when they were outside their dorm and she leant up to kiss him while her hands went to his neck. When she pulled back, she brought his tie up over his head and hung it on the doorknob. She then grabbed his hand and pulled him through the door with her, bringing him up against her body in another kiss that had him breathless. Her hands went up to hold his face as his hands went down to settle on her back, just above the curve of her bottom. They moved until his knees hit the back of her bed and she pushed him a little so that he sat down, breaking their kiss. The sound of their deep breathing echoed through the room as Tai regarded his girlfriend, waiting for her to make the first move. He had no idea where the night would end up taking them, but in the end, it would always have been her decision to make.

  


“Take off your shirt.” She commanded, fingers tapping at her thigh in the darkness.

  


He obliged, slowly unbuttoning his shirt without any teasing or sexual subtext. His fingers were steady against the buttons, and when he finally undid the last one he let his dress shirt fall away from his shoulders, pooling on the bed behind him. He leant back on his hands, blushing as Raven’s eyes travelled the expanse of his chest. Normally, he wouldn’t have been so modest when showing off his body. He had done it often enough when they were training together during the summer months and the AC in the gym wasn’t working, and he wasn't shy about, but this was different. He couldn’t find the arrogance he needed to smirk at her appreciative gaze in an all-knowing smile. Arrogance didn’t belong here, amongst their blossoming vulnerability.

  


“Unzip my dress.”

  


He stood up, her eyes unflinching from his gaze as he went to stand over her. He reached around her, grabbing her hair and moving it so that it was all in front of her shoulder instead of behind her. He then reached blindly to search for the zipper at her back. His forehead pressed against her and they shared each other’s air as he pulled the zipper down, careful to not let it catch on the lace that wove down her back. When he finished, he kissed the corner of her cheek and backed away, waiting for her reply. Another second passed before she kissed him back, grabbing his face in her hands. Tai took this as a good sign and his hands went to wrap around her waist. His index finger gently rubbed the patch of skin at the bottom of her spine revealed by her open dress. Once again, he was pushed back to sit on her bed. He stared up at her, almost in worship, as her pale skin was illuminated by the ivory light that shone through the window from Remnant’s cracked moon.

  


He held his breath as she slipped the sleeves of her dress down her arms. The expensive garment fell and pooled around her feet, revealing a black lace bra and matching panties. A flicker of a question ran through Tai’s head as he wondered if Raven knew that this was all going to happen, or if she just enjoyed wearing the fancy undergarments. He figured that it was a mystery for a later time as she climbed into his lap, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. His hands went to her waist, and he kept them there with no intention of travelling any lower unless she asked him to. She brought her lips to his once more, invading his mouth with her tongue. Their breathing was heavier as Raven’s hands started to travel down from Tai’s shoulders down his back and around to his chest. He winced, pulling in a tight breath when she accidentally dug her nails into his skin as she trailed her fingertips down his chest and toward his abdomen.

  


Suddenly, her lips left his and kisses trailed their way across his cheek and up to his ear. He closed his eyes, lost in the sensation as he leant his head to the side to accommodate her. Tiny puffs of air from her breath tickled their way into his ear and down his neck, sending chills down his spine.

  


“It’s okay to touch.” She whispered in his ear, almost playfully. Her tone brought a smile to his lips, and he allowed himself to relax just a bit. His hands started to roaming her body as they went back to kissing. They travelled up the expanse of her back, poking under the strap of her bra, but he didn’t go to take it off. They then moved to her sides, his thumbs coming around to her front as he brought them down to her abdomen. His breath hitched as his thumb ran over four raised ridges that marred her pale skin. He leant back from Raven for a second, looking down at the four scars that ran across her abdomen, caught in the memory of their origin for a tense moment before he bombarded her mouth with his, surprising her with the swell of his emotions. She went to wrap her arms around his shoulders, preventing herself from falling backwards as he pushed her, his hand gripping tighter into her side.

  


She returned each kiss with the same force, but he could feel her fingertips gently tapping at the back of his shoulder and he suddenly realised that he was overwhelming her. He let go of her body to lean back on his hands and give her space as they both panted. The pause between them drew his attention to the tightness in his pants, which also sparked the realisation that they were on a less-than-equal footing in terms of nakedness. He nudged her to stand up once again and he followed, standing before her as she looked at him in confusion. Under her gaze he unbuckled his belt and undid the fly of his pants, sliding them down over his thighs as his erection sprung upward only to be caught again by his boxers. It wasn’t something that she told him to do, and he might have crossed some invisible line that she had drawn in her mind, but her next course of action relieved him of that thought.

  


They couldn’t look into each other’s eyes as she brought her hands up to her back, deftly undoing the clasp of her bra without a hint of hesitation. It fell to the floor and he glanced at her breasts for only a second before moving his gaze to some place safer, like her shoulder or the top of her head. She did the same. The air somehow felt different from before, when it was humid with their attraction to each other, and was instead infected with their continuously growing vulnerability to one another. They couldn't shake it off as it had already crossed both of their minds. They were exposed in ways they hadn’t been before.

  


“Raven, we don’t have to…” Taiyang broke the awkward silence, offering her a way out as he trailed off.

  


He didn’t expect her to start kissing him again, to pounce on him so that their bodies were pressing so close together that he could feel her breasts on his chest. His hands immediately went to the curve of her ass, pulling their hips closer together so that she could feel his hard erection against her thigh. She hitched one her legs up around his waist and tried to bring the other one up as well. He didn’t realise fast enough what she was doing, so instead of properly bearing her weight, he was sent backwards onto the bed, bouncing on the mattress as he landed with her above him. Their frantic making out continued as he reached a hesitant hand up to caress her breast, his thumb rolling over her erect nipple. She gasped into his mouth in response, rolling her hips and grinding down onto his cock. He groaned at the contact, pushing down with the hand that was still on her ass so that they were pressed closer together and he could grind up into her.

  


A second later and suddenly their positions were switched. Tai was on top, framing Raven’s head with his forearms as he continued to kiss her and grind against her lower half. He was lost in chasing his own pleasure until he realised that Raven’s hands were pushing up against his chest. He leapt up from her so that he wasn’t leaning over her anymore, but was still straddling her. They took a second to catch their breath as Raven brought a hand up to her head, sweeping her bangs off her forehead. Her round breasts looked flat when she was on her back and they moved up and down as she panted. He pressed the palm of his hand to her abdomen, rubbing soothing circles with his thumb into her skin. Her hand came to cover his.

  


“I’m so-” He began to apologise. Raven squeezed his hand that covered her stomach.

  


“I’m okay.” She interrupted him. She closed her eyes and repeated her words to herself like a mantra, “I’m okay.”

  


“Here,” Taiyang said, getting up from straddling her so that he could move onto his side. He turned her body with him so they could see each other, “Equal footing.”

  


“Equal footing.” She sighed into his mouth as she went back to kiss him. His hand rested on the edge of her panties, toying with the lace between his fingers. She did the same with the edge of his boxers before hesitantly letting herself drift lower to grasp at the flesh of his ass. Long fingers wandered their way to the front of his boxers, grasping him around his cock. He gasped, struck by her boldness as he moved away from her lips. Under the seam of his boxers, her thumb rubbed over the head of his cock, sweeping up the pre-cum that had gathered there. His leg spasmed as she did so. He wasn’t kissing her anymore as she continued her ministrations, unable to focus on anything but the feeling of her hand. He grasped tighter into her flesh as he looked at her through hooded eyes, hips moving with tiny thrusts into her palm. One corner of her mouth was quirked up in a smirk; she knew what she was doing to him, and she was enjoying it. Quickly, his hand that was sitting on her waist went to grasp her around the wrist, pulling her hand out of his boxers and holding it between them. Raven raised her eyebrow at him, questioning his next move.

  


He kept his hand around her wrist as he moved in to peck her on the lips. She returned the kiss, but his next peck landed on the corner of her mouth, then her jaw, then her chin, until he was leaving open-mouthed wet kisses down her neck. He took a second to suck at the space between her neck and clavicle, making sure he left a mark behind before he continued his journey southwards.

  


“Tai-” Raven gasped from above him, interrupted from saying his full name like she usually did when his mouth enclosed over one of her nipples and he flicked it with his tongue. He smirked as he did so, quite proud that he was able to silence her, “What are you doing?” She asked when he released her nipple to suck a hickey on the underside of her breast before continuing to the next one.

  


“Kissing you,” He replied stubbornly as he wrapped his lips around her other nipple. She gasped once more and the sound amused him so. He let go to suck another hickey just above her nipple before moving farther downwards. 

  


“Worshipping you.” He said as his lips ghosted over her abdomen, just barely touching her skin. He trailed his fingertips over the four claw marks scarred onto her skin. It must have tickled because the muscles in her abdomen rippled and seized under his lips when he touched her. Her free hand went to burrow itself in his hair, trying to pull him back up, but he resisted. He flicked his gaze to look up her body into her eyes. A silent conversation passed through them before her hold in his hair loosened and he was allowed to continue.

  


He let go of her wrist, needing two hands for the next part. He coaxed her to lift her hips up as he slid her panties over her hips, down her thighs and legs before tossing them behind him. He then pulled her body down the bed so that her hips were sitting just on the edge of the mattress, and he was kneeling on the floor. He spread her legs so that he was sitting in between them, constantly rubbing soothing circles with his thumbs into the skin of her thighs, before raising her legs onto his shoulders.

  


“Tasting you.” He whispered into her before licking a broad stripe with his tongue over the opening of her cunt up to her clitoris, flicking the little bundle of nerves with the tip of his tongue. The effect on her was immediate as her back arched violently and she gasped. He pressed his forearm down onto her hips to prevent her from moving away from his mouth and continued to devour her cunt, smirking at the tiny gasps he was able to coax past her lips. One of her hands went down to grasp the sheets beneath her, and he reached up to hold it. She held onto him like a lifeline, her hand shaking within his.

  


Unsurprisingly, Raven didn’t moan as he continued to eat her out, so there were no verbal cues he could use to tell if he was doing a good job. However, he was still able to tell by the uncontrollable spasming of the muscles in her thighs and the feeling of her heels digging in his back that he was doing something right. He moved the hand that kept her hips down closer to the spot between her legs, bringing his thumb to rub circles over her clit as he pushed his tongue into her cunt. Once again, her hips tried to escape from his hold on her, but he pressed them back down. He pulled back from his task to look up at her. Sweat dropped down off her forehead and gleamed in the moonlight. Her eyes were closed and pointed up toward the ceiling as her back arched elegantly, pushing her heaving breasts into the air. She was beautiful in the throes of her own pleasure, and Tai was happy that he was able to get her there.

  


But he still had more work to do.

  


Her brought his hand that was holding hers down to his face and inserted his index finger into her wet heat where his saliva and her juices combined. He moved it within her, stretching her walls around it until he thought she could take another one. He then added his middle finger, scissoring the two inside of her while his thumb continued to rub against her clit. He slowly began to thrust his two fingers in and out of her, slightly crooking them on the way out so that they dragged against her walls. Her hips began to thrust against them of their own volition as she chased her climax. She panted uncontrollably, yet no sound but her breath passed through her lips.

  


Her walls clamped around his fingers when she finally orgasmed, and her other muscles followed suit. Her thighs that rested on his shoulders squeezed his head and he could feel her abdomen muscles seize under his forearm. He lifted his arm so that her hips could move more freely, but continued to rub her clit through climax and kept his fingers inserted firmly inside her, moving with her hips. 

  


When she started to calm down, he pressed one final kiss to her cunt before removing his fingers. He placed his hands on her thighs, rubbing them up and down her quivering skin as she was brought down from her violent orgasm. When her muscles stopped shaking he turned his head and sucked the skin of her thigh into his mouth, leaving a hickey there to mark where he had been. He then got up from between her legs and moved so that he was lying down on the bed beside her, staring at her upturned face. He reached out for her hand and brought it up to his lips, kissing her palm.

  


The room fell into near silence as he lay beside her and she calmed her breathing. Outside, the fall wind rustled through the trees and the branches began to tap against the glass of the window. The smell of sex and sweat had already begun to fill the air, mixing with the scent of incense and cherry soap that permeated Raven’s skin. After a few minutes, Raven turned to face Tai and opened her eyes.

  


“You have condoms in your bedside table, correct?” She asked. Tai was taken aback, wondering how she knew that. She didn’t answer verbally, instead, she brought up two fingers to tap against her forehead. He nodded and got up from the bed, crossing the room to his own bed and taking his boxers off somewhere along the way. He opened the drawer, hastily sticking his hand inside it and rummaging around until he hit a bunch of aluminum packets. He grabbed one and closed the drawer. He then ripped open the foil packet and held the condom up to the light, making sure he had it the right way before sliding it down his cock. When he looked back over to Raven’s bed he saw that she had sat up, her hair sticking to the sweat on her back.

  


“How d’you wanna do this?” He asked. She nodded to the headboard of the bed, and he understood what she was telling him to do. He walked over and sat upright against the headboard, his legs outstretched in front of him. She went to straddle him, keeping her hips lifted above his. As they gazed into each other eyes, Tai reached his hand down to grab his cock, teasing it against her cunt until he positioned it at her entrance. Slowly, she lowered herself down on him. Both of them winced. Her from the stretch, and him from the constricting hold on his cock. He tensed up, actively trying not to thrust up into her until Raven was ready. She lowered another inch and held herself there, breathing deeply to help herself through the pain.

  


Tai brought his hand to her hip so he could rub soothing circles around her clit, determined to give her some pleasure. He then pressed a kiss to her open lips.

  


“Look at you,” he whispered into her open mouth, “So beautiful.” He pressed another kiss to her lips, a small peck that she pushed back into.

  


“So sexy.” He kissed her again, lightly asking for entrance into her mouth with his tongue.

  


“So strong.” He invaded her mouth with his tongue and she pushed back with equal passion. She lowered another inch and both of them gasped, taking a second to breathe.

  


“So powerful.” He caressed her cheek with his hand, bringing her lips to his once more. They kissed passionately, teeth clacking against one another and tongues warring. Every time he came up for air he whispered another word against her lips.

  


“Determined.”

  


“Amibitious.”

  


“ _Stubborn_.”

  


She smiled against his lips when he said the last one.

  


“I thought you liked that about me.” She teased as she slid down his cock one last time. He was fully sheathed inside her when he looked down at where they were connected, his thumb continuing to rub against her clit. He watched as she raised herself up slowly before lowering herself again, thighs quivering. A hitch of pain escaped her lips as she sat back down.

  


“One more minute, I think.” She shifted around in his lap, bringing her face down to burrow itself into his neck.

  


“Ok.” He whispered, bringing his other hand up to draw soothing lines with his fingertips up and down her spine.

  


“But please, continue to praise me if you wish.” He felt her lips smile against the sensitive skin of his neck and wished that he could see it. He turned his face so that he could whisper into her ear.

  


“Independent,” He said before planting a kiss in her hairline.

  


“Vicious.”

  


“Controlling.”

  


She bit into his neck, sucking at his pulse point, “Now you’re just being mean.”

  


“Am I-ugh.” He groaned as she lifted and lowered herself once more. 

  


She raised herself from his neck, smirking down at him, “What were you saying?”

  


He shook his head, panting lightly, “Nothing.”

  


She continued to shift her body on top of his lap, slowly riding him with quivering thighs. Still weak from her last orgasm, it became too much for her, and she stopped moving. He took over for her, thrusting up into her so she bounced on his lap as he continued to circle his thumb around her clit. This time he was able to see every facial movement and quirk as she moved towards the edge of her climax. Her head twitched to the side every time he hit a particular spot inside of her. Instead of bracing her arms on his shoulders, she grasped onto the headboard behind him. She was still sensitive from her first orgasm, which made his job easier while he staved off his own climax. His thumb rubbed faster around her clit as the arch in her back became more pronounced. She closed her eyes and her head began to tilt back towards the ceiling when he realised she was getting closer. Another couple thrusts and she fell over the edge, the walls of her cunt squeezing around him.

  


Her arms collapsed and she fell against his chest, panting into his shoulder. He continued to thrust up into her until he followed her in climax. He pressed their hips against each other as his release spurted into the condom, his moans the only ones to fill the room. Settling back against the headboard, he allowed his euphoria to take over, relaxing his muscles as waves of pleasure rocked through his body. Raven’s walls continued to squeeze around his cock, which began to grow limp inside of her. As it grew to become painful, he nudged at her to get off. She didn’t respond.

  


“Raven.” He whispered, planting a kiss in her hair. He picked up her head from where it sat on his shoulder, bringing it up so that he could look at her. Her eyes were glazed over, and clearly unfocused. He pressed a kiss to her lips, “You gotta get up.” He told her.

  


She nodded wearily, “Right.”

  


He helped her lift herself off him and lie down on her side. Shivers still continued to wrack her body as he went to get off the bed. Suddenly she reached out to grasp at his wrist, preventing him from leaving.

  


“Where’re you goin’.” She mumbled.

  


Tai almost chuckled at her slurred speech, “Gettin’ a wash cloth. You’re all sticky.”

  


“So’re you.” She muttered after him as he walked over to the washroom. Once inside, he took the condom off and tied it before throwing it in the trash. He then grabbed a washcloth from his rack of towels and wet it with warm water. He washed first, trying to get all the sweat off his body before rinsing the washcloth and heading out of the washroom back to Raven. When he returned, he saw that she hadn’t moved and her eyes were closed. Her skin glowed under the moonlight, sweat gleaming from her brow.

  


He sat down next to her and washed her off, running the warm cloth up and down her skin as gently as possible. He wiped off her brow, then moved to her back, lifting her hair off it. After he was done with the cloth, he reached over to her bedside table to grab one of the ponytails he knew she kept there. With slightly trembling fingers, he attempted to wrangle her tangled hair into a loose braid, which was the way she preferred it to sleep in.

  


Afterwards, he pulled the cover out from under and got on the bed, resting himself against the pillows. He then gathered her up in his arms and brought her to rest against his chest. She didn’t return his embrace or even cuddle closer into him, and he didn’t expect her to. He was just glad that she let him hold her. Especially after what had happened between them that night.

  


He couldn’t help but run his hand over her head, forcing himself to stay awake to bask in the moment. He drifted in and out of wakefulness. At one point, he was pretty sure he heard the angry voice of Qrow ranting right outside the door, only to be soothed by Summer who knew well enough to lead him away with a promise of freshly baked cookies.

  


Taiyang smirked, and whispered to Raven, even though he was pretty sure she must have been asleep by then, “I think you’re brother is going to kill me tomorrow.”

  


“Don’ worry, I’ll protect you.” She whispered back, “I’m not doing that only once.”

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay....
> 
> Ahem.
> 
> First I apologise for my two-week absence. I've had midterms for the past little while o I've been studying for tests, and then taking tests. Rinse. Wash. Repeat. But that's over now so, yay. Hopefully, I can get back to a semi-regular schedule.
> 
> I'm gonna keep the rating of this story at an M because I don't intend to write any more chapters like this one. If I do, it might be like another one or two chapters, but like, this ain't gonna turn into some kind of smutfest. This chapter already came way out of left field for me, I don't know if I can do it again.
> 
> The story behind this chapter started when I began to fill out this character sheet ([here](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ENx3SKXhdjHFJmdCiJZK4unkwKcvVUvg6XLuuD6aN8w/edit?usp=sharing)) for Raven. There were a couple questions about sex and flirting and romance and whatever, and I just kept on thinking about it until this scenario popped into my head. You can see my original draft in there somewhere, along with the place I decided to give up and write it all down properly.
> 
> Anyways, the point of this chapter is that I think WAY too much about Raven and her relationship with sex.
> 
> Some notes:
> 
>   1. Yes Raven says "bob-pin" somewhere in the chapter instead of "bobby pin". No, this is not a mistake on the authour's part.
>   2. My favourite topic: Raven and sex (why Cords why?). No, but Raven’s response to flirting, and how the response evolves from her time at Beacon is such an interesting topic that I’d like to get my fingers on. Like how does someone go from a sexually repressed society, where you look at everyone like family instead of as potential romantic/sexual partners, to a place where sex is not restricted and, surprise, you’re actually considered quite attractive to everyone around you. 
> 
> Like, does she take it with hostility at first? Is she just really confused by it? “Why are these people making odd remarks about my appearance?” It’s because you’re attractive, Raven” “Oh, that’s good, right?” Like I would never want to portray her as this weird virginal lamb, blushing all the time over her own sexuality, because that’s just wrong. I think I would rather write her as someone who takes a sort of passive control of her sexual choices and decisions. Like she herself won’t actively pursue someone, but if someone were to pursue her, then she’ll have a checklist and grading matrix to make sure they’re the right person.
> 
> Slash I could just imagine some bozo flirting with her, she turns her head and just says “no” and goes back to whatever it was she was doing.
> 
>   3. What is Raven’s opinion of sex? 
> 
> Well, once she does it, she likes doing it for one.
> 
> I think it’s an interesting shift of power for her. Raven isn’t used to being vulnerable, and she doesn’t trust anybody enough to be vulnerable in front of them. So I think for her to have sex, involved a lot of trust on her part. For Tai to gain that trust, must have taken a while. Raven must have made the first move in almost everything in their relationship.
> 
> I think it’s pretty safe to assume that Tai was the first and last person that Raven had sex with.
> 
> I don’t think Raven is one to have a one night stand. She doesn’t use her sexuality as a weapon like some sort of femme fatale.
> 
>   4. I should stop talking about sex now, right? Yes. I should.
> 



	14. afterword

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What? Did I update this thing? Huh?
> 
> Actually, I wrote this a couple months ago and posted it under a pseudonym to see how pseudonyms work. Now I'm adding it to this because this is really where it belongs.
> 
> You may have noticed that I changed the status of this fic and made it part of a series called the STRQ Anthology. This may or may not be going anywhere. See, the original "plan" of this fic was to make it a sort of starting point for an actual chronological series of Team STRQ that fit into canon as much as possible. It currently has a well-plotted first instalment with five fully written chapters being edited.
> 
> And then the most recent episode happened.
> 
> Anyways, it's back to the drawing board with that. In the meantime, enjoy this chapter. Which has really already been out for several months.
> 
> There also might be another update latter today or tomorrow concerning stuff that happened in V5E4.

 

As always, he listens to what Oz tells him to do. It’s always been easy to listen to Oz, to not have to think about the consequences of his actions under his old professor’s direction because someone else had already thought of them. It always meant that there was a second person to share the blame if things went sideways, and Qrow had always been very particular about blame-sharing. 

 

> As long as the person was still alive afterwards, anyways. Qrow was pretty sure it was bad karma to place blame on a dead guy.

 

First, he’s fighting Grimm. Then he’s fighting non-sentient garbage. Then a destroyer-class airship is falling from the sky and he’s back to fighting Grimm. With his scythe. As he makes his way through Vale back towards the air docks and back towards Beacon, which he’s pretty sure he should never have left in the first place. 

 

> Blame can be placed on a dead guy if the person’s death is directly related to the decision they made, however. Qrow didn’t make the rules, they just happen to be the only ones he follows.

 

He should probably hate himself for his first thought when he reaches the cliffside air docks. Jimmy made the decision for him to assist the evacuation process. Oz should make the decision for him on what to do next. So when he steps out of the airship his first isn’t _Why are the kids the only ones defending Beacon?_

 

or

 

_Where’s Ruby?_

 

or

 

_Why is Yang missing an arm and bleeding out on the pavement?_

 

His first thought is _Where’s Oz_.Because his first instinct is to listen to Oz.

 

> His _first_ first instinct is to listen to Raven actually. Then Summer came along and his first instinct became to listen to Summer. But Summer’s dead and Raven’s abandoned him, so his first instinct is to listen to Oz.
> 
>  
> 
> (Or maybe it’s his third instinct?)

 

There’s shouting mixed with cries mixed with growling of Grimm and Pete and Oobleck are just barely managing to hold a line against the monsters with the few students who can stay on their feet when Qrow jumps into action.

 

Grimm have always been what he’s best at.

 

> He’s pretty good with people too, but not in the way he prefers. He likes the idea of being a lover over a fighter but fighting’s what he’s good and those who love him tend to leave him.

 

The deadly sharpened edge of Claw slices through necks, appendages, and entire bodies with ease. And by the end of it all, he’s barely breaking a sweat while Pete is leaning on his blunderbuss out of breath, kids are rocking back and forth in shock, and his niece is still bleeding out on the pavement.

 

> Are they scared of him now? Do they see him as their saviour, or as their inevitable outcome? So used to the bloodshed and battle that it just doesn’t phase him anymore?
> 
>  
> 
> (Phase him enough that he shows it at least.)

 

The kids help their classmates onto the airship. A blond-haired boy lets Ruby and Yang’s emo teammate rest her weight against him as she limps toward the docks, cradling her abdomen with a blood soaked hand.

 

> He’s actually leading her away, forcing her away. Blake (Yes, Qrow does know that her name is Blake. He knows all of their names, but he always liked nicknames better.) is fighting against her pain, trying to tear away from his side to get back to another blonde. Except the other blonde is a girl and she’s lying on the ground, blood soaking into the pavement.

 

Qrow is the one to pick up his niece. Other’s go to help him, but he almost shoves them away. He willingly throws his weapon to the floor (Almost in defeat, but never in Defeat.) and cradles the girl in his arms the way he did the day she was born. 

 

> Firecracker was a good nickname. It came to him the second she was passed into his arms, bright amethyst eyes, blonde tuft of hair, blood of his blood if he actually gave a damn about that.

 

He doesn’t strain under her weight, he’s carried heavier things. The kids watch in shock as he brings her onto the airship, sets her down like porcelain on the stretcher. He looks around at hollow faces. _Is there anyone else?_ He asks. A red-haired girl attached the side of a black haired boy raises a shaking hand.

 

 

> He got a message from Ruby less than a week into her first semester, rambling on and on about her fantastic teammates and the team the lived across the hallway.
> 
>  
> 
> ...and Nora is shorter than me, even tho shes older, but shes stronger too and her hammer is heavier than my scythe…. Oh but I cant forget about Ren hes so quiet but he moves so quickly and I want to learn to flip like he does…

 

 _Ruby and Weiss went back for Jaune and Pyrrha_ , she says. He shouts to the pilot to wait for him and then Qrow’s running back into the fray, leaning down to pick his weapon up without breaking his stride. He slaughters Grimm without thought as he sprints to Beacon tower.

 

 

> His first thought is Ruby but his second thought is Weiss because he’s seen Winter talk about her younger sister with the stars of pride in her eyes and it’s the only thing that keep her human in his eyes.

 

He finds the Schnee girl biting off more than she can chew, but doing well on her own anyway. He steps in to help her but the Grimm are coming faster than Qrow and Weiss can kill them, and Qrow knows that he’ll do better if he doesn’t have to think about her safety. Never mind the higher-than-Alpha-class Grimm that’s circling the tower, it’ll be the overwhelming number of Creeps that do them in.

 

 _Where’s Ruby_ , he asks and Weiss points a finger to the top of the tower as it erupts into a literal beacon of blinding white light.

 

 

> It’s third year when it finally happens. They’re backed into a figurative corner, all out of Aura except Summer, their charge in mortal danger. They don’t figure out the trigger until later, but suddenly Summer is consumed by bright white that bleeds from the tattered edges of her cloak.
> 
>  
> 
> She kills their pursuers with the blade of her staff instead of the arrows of her bow, amongst screams of pain that are interminable from her cry of rage.
> 
>  
> 
> Afterwards she’s in a daze, tears like snail tracks down her face. There is only anger, pain, and sadness, and she faints into Qrow’s arms, dead to the world for three days as they finish the rest of their mission.
> 
>  
> 
> Oz tells them the story of the Silver-Eyed Warriors when they return to school.
> 
>  
> 
> (The trigger had always come from pain. Pain from the thought of losing those closest to you. Qrow should have never been on that final mission.)

 

He pushes Weiss back towards the air docks, deaf to her cries as she pleads with him. Tells him that she can help. She could help, but he can do this by himself. As she turns her back to him and doesn’t look back, he shifts into his namesake. Shrinks into the avian form naturally and takes into the air. He climbs into the sky as fast as he can, flies towards the white light like he’s drowning and he’s suddenly found the surface again. He lands on the dilapidated tower in a crouch, weapon still in hand. The shivering body of his niece is kneeled in front of him, clutching something in her grasp. She turns to him, eyes completely white.

 

 

> The second time happens years later, a random happenstance beating continued experimentation into previously unbelievable mystical powers. He’s standing in between his best friend and his sister, looking into white eyes, convincing her to back down.
> 
>  
> 
> Because Summer doesn’t hate Raven for leaving Yang.
> 
>  
> 
> Summer doesn’t hate Raven for leaving Tai.
> 
>  
> 
> Summer doesn’t hate Raven for leaving Qrow, or herself.
> 
>  
> 
> Summer doesn’t even hate Raven.
> 
>  
> 
> But Summer’s in pain.

 

 _It’s alright kiddo. I got you._ He speaks to Ruby, collapsing Claw that he can set it down on his lower back. He crawls over, slowly. She could vaporise him in a second if he isn’t careful, and that isn’t the way he wants to go. He crawls until he’s right next to her, until he can crouch beside her and pull him against his chest, her soft hair tickling the bottom of his chin. _I got you_.

 

 _Uncle Qrow?_ She whispers. Everything goes dark and she sinks into his arms. He releases a breath, pulling back to see a familiar golden circlet encased in her grasp. He tries to pull it away, but she grips it even tighter in unconsciousness.

 

 _I got you_. It takes some manoeuvring, but he manages to get her arms wrapped around his neck and her legs in his hands in an awkward piggyback. He can’t shift like this, but the ruins of the tower provide a jumpable way down back to the ground. He just has to take his time, and not fuck up his ankle as he does so.

 

> _My turn, Uncle Qrow, my turn!_ He almost falls to the ground as he’s attacked by Yang, who scrambles onto his back. _No it’s my turn_. Ruby yells as she jumps onto Yang’s back and suddenly all three of them are tumbling to the ground and the girls are laughing as their father spends another day in bed.
> 
>  
> 
> The time of year is always difficult for Tai, but it can’t be for Qrow. The girls need at least one of them.

 

He makes it back to the docks, surprised that the airship is still there. He runs back into the hull as the doors slide shut behind them, and he’s finally beginning to pant as he drops to his knees, gets Ruby off his back, and lies her down next to her sister. Their two friends gasp when they see the golden circlet, the girl makes a move to take it but Qrow slaps her hand away, apologising for his harshness as he shakes his head. The girl seems to understand.

 

There’s no space left for him to sit on a bench, so he finds some floor and sits with his back against the wall.

 

 _How do we keep going? After all this?_ Someone whispers.

 

 _You get selfish_ , he says, staring into some unknown distance. His fingers itch for his flask but he doesn’t take it out. Not in front of the kids. _You go to school with pure aspirations, fighting for the greater good, to protect the helpless, for the advancement of humanity. But selflessness doesn’t help on days like today._ He licks his lips, dry from heavy breathing. _You gotta find something, or someone, that matters more. And you get selfish._ His gaze turns towards his nieces. _Because you know if you lose that, them, there’ll be nothin’ left. And that keeps you going._

 

He can feel the stares. There are maybe five people on that ship who know what the fuck he’s talking about, Pete and Oobleck amongst them.

 

> It takes two months for him to wake up. Five seconds for his world to shatter. One month to get back into fighting shape. Two days to be gone with no note. Glynda, Pete, and Oobleck stare in pity and awe as he walks without a limp and stands in front of Ozpin and demands an assignment.
> 
>  
> 
> Oz, bless him, doesn’t even blink.

 

He can’t carry both of his nieces off the airship, so he settles for Ruby and Yang is carried on a stretcher. All the injured are gathered in a corner and he sets the down with the doctors and nurses there before he goes to join Glynda and the rest of the adults, huddled off in the broken down doorway of a bakery. Goodwitch is keeping it together. Jimmy is barely functioning in a mechanical way, but he’s always good with carrying a screwdriver around and Qrow knows more about the general’s nuts and bolts anatomy than he cares to admit. He shoves Jimmy down on his ass and gets to work on the nerves in his arm, trying to stop them from automatically firing and forcing the metal fingers to twitch uncontrollably. Jimmy just takes it. He’s occasionally agreeable.

 

Glynda says something from behind him that Qrow doesn’t notice, and suddenly the two of them are alone. Suddenly thoughts of a blonde haired girl missing an arm are travelling through his mind at breakneck speed. Suddenly he has to fix it as soon as possible, and the answer is sitting right next to him, clothing already half torn off his body. 

 

> _Do you like this Jimmy?_ He squirms in the other boy’s lap and chuckles at the responding groan. Somehow, his bandit ass is making this straight-laced Atlesian goody two-shoes fucking melt and he can’t find anything more amusing than that.

 

It’s so easy to kiss him again like he did when they were eighteen and they were at a bar celebrating a loss in a bathroom stall together. _What are you doing, Qrow?_ Jimmy asks him. _Anything you want_ , he replies, _name your price for it. Just make sure she gets better_.

 

He’s pushed off by the flesh hand, not the metal one, and Jim tells him to explain. He listens and nods and thank the gods Jim is reliable because Qrow can actually believe him when he says he’ll get it done. It’s a thought out of his mind, and he can breathe a little easier. He finishes his patch-job as much as he can and leaves Jimmy behind in the bakery.

 

The fight is over and he was good at fighting, so there’s not much else he can do. He stands vigil by his nieces, for how long he can’t tell. But it’s long enough for reinforcements to arrive from Patch, because the next thing that actually breaks through the haze is Tai’s voice, shouting from down the street. _Where are my girls?_

 

Qrow is up in a heartbeat, racing down the street as Tai is pointed in the right direction, stopping his former teammate in his path. _What happened Qrow?_ As he tries to get passed, but Qrow pushed him away. _Calm down, Tai._

 

_I won’t calm down ‘til I see my girls._

 

_Please, Tai._

 

_Let me through!_

 

Qrow’s lucky that Tai isn’t trying the hard to get past him because the blond could beat Qrow into a pulp if he wanted to. Qrow knows this. It’s happened before.

 

They’re making a scene, all eyes turned toward them. Tai calms down an inch, and Qrow lets him through. His friend collapses by his daughters’ sides. The entire street cries with him.

 

 _They’re gonna be okay, Tai_.

 

_Why didn’t she come?_

 

Qrow has no answer for that. He’s silent once more.

 

Glynda’s the one who finally manages to pull them away with talks of going back to Beacon. The Super Secret Ozpin Club is assembled, minus one Ozpin, plus one Taiyang, because he used to be a part of everything and he deserves to know everything at this point.

 

Ozpin’s not making decisions anymore, and Qrow doesn’t have a fourth instinct.

 

Time to make the decisions, then.

 

Their bickering over each other, the inevitable conclusion of their leader’s demise. _I’ll go,_ He pipes up. Surprised faces turn to him. _It’s stupid to send anyone else. I can fly past them all and find Oz if he’s around. If not I can at least get the cane._

 

It’s stupidly logical for a man who runs on instinct.

 

He turns around without discussion, walks into an alleyway to shift in secrecy.

 

_You better come back Qrow. You know Ruby only listens to you, and Yang likes it when you braid her hair._

 

It’s a plea and a tease all in one. The only person Ruby ever listened to was her mother, and Yang’s too old to braid her hair. Qrow sighs, shifts, and flies; black feathers against a black sky.

 

He spends six hours in the ruins of Beacon, shifting and unshifting so much his bones begin to ache. He doesn’t find a body, but he finds the cane. He’s pretty sure he didn’t want to find the body, it doesn’t really matter in the end.

 

> Oz only tells him, and Glynda. That he has one last trick up his sleeve, if everything goes to shit, and they’ll have to find him again if it does. He’ll have his mind, in a different body, in a different place.
> 
>  
> 
> One of the most powerful men in Remnant just asked Qrow for his protection and Qrow is still in disbelief.
> 
>  
> 
> How did it come to this?

 

When he lands back in Vale the sun is up. Jimmy’s gone home. The kids are being shipped back to their respective kingdoms. He pulls Glynda aside and shoves the cane into her hands. She gives it back. 

She was always so damn sure of her place in the world. Proud to stand at Oz’s right to Qrow’s left. She ridiculed him for his recklessness, his drunkenness, his entire lifestyle. Yet the second she’s forced to make the decisions, she gives the power to him.

They’re more alike than either of them would care to admit.

 

He takes an airship to Patch. Once on the island, he sucks it up and flies himself to the little cottage on the hill, in the middle of the forest. He hasn’t been there in almost a year. He’s weirdly happy to be back, despite the circumstances.

 

Yang’s in his room. Ruby’s still asleep. He gets the couch. It’s not unfamiliar to him. He crashes for a day, cane clutched tightly in his grip.

 

He wakes up when Yang wakes up. When she goes into shock at the sight of a missing arm and a phantom pain and it takes both Qrow and Tai to get her to calm down. She falls asleep with a pill. He can't tell if it's better for her or for them. He and Tai take turns sitting the girls' bedsides, switching every few fours. He doesn't tell Tai about the familiar looking black bird that sits on a branch outside Yang's window. He takes to talking with when Yang's asleep, the words that pass his lips cruel and unkind.

 

She deserves it. He needs something to be angry at.

 

Ruby wakes up on the third day. She's soft and confused, small in her childhood bed. Even smaller in a bedroom made for two, yet housing only one. But she has the same spark as her mother. The same selflessness.

It takes her two weeks to leave. With a note because she's a good kid. Qrow leaves with her, albeit a couple steps behind. He doesn't leave a note because he's an asshole and if Tai needs someone to blame than Qrow will take that burden.

Seems like he's making the decisions now.


	15. bond

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter _does_ contain spoilers for the most recent episode of RWBY (V5E4) so please don't read if you don't want to be spoiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is alternatively titled: the bonds we make and how we break them.
> 
> Or 5 times Raven made a bond with another person, and one time a bond was broken.

_1_

 

 

The first bond began with a breath.

 

 

Her brother’s first breath, to clarify. She had come into the world twelve minutes before him and didn’t stop crying until he joined her. The bond was forged as they were held in their mother’s arms, twin crimson eyes closed in peaceful rest as Raven’s Semblance worked its magic. She had been barely an hour old, and the closeness of her twin had unlocked it.

 

 

Raven never knew that, though. She never heard the story of her birth. She never knew her parent's names, or if she had bonded with them as well. They had died when she was very young. She didn’t think about it.

 

 

What she _did_ know was that she always had the nagging sensation at the back of her head that told her where her brother was at any given moment. She didn’t think much about that either. To her, it made a certain amount of sense that she had made that connection to her brother and no one else. It didn’t need to mean anything else but that. Except that it did.

 

 

Semblances were important in the tribe. You didn’t earn your name until you discovered your Semblance, and if you didn’t find it by a certain age the methods the tribe used became very unorthodox.

 

 

She remembers being taken from her tent in the middle of the night, blindfolded, and stuck in a box which may or may not have then been buried five feet underground. She remembers banging her fists against the wood above until her knuckles began to bleed and her lungs ached from the lack of air. She remembered gasping for breath as she tangled with the bond in the depths of her conscious and felt her brother sleeping peacefully, dead to the world, back in their tent.

 

 

The portal opened from under her and she fell five feet in the air, landing on her sleeping brother.

 

 

Further experimentation from the tribe followed. She practised for hours until either her Aura exhausted, or her elders became frustrated with repetition of the results. She was asked to create a portal to a nearby village, to another tribe member, to Mistral itself. They watched her as she concentrated on the image of a specific place in her mind, opened the chaotic portal in front of her with a slice of her sword, and walked through it, always appearing next to her brother no matter the distance between them.

 

 

Years later, after the tribe's methods found no further results when it came to her portals and she had forgotten how she had once been treated by them, she continued to work on her Semblance herself. She meditated on the bond inside her head and let it flourish until it wasn’t just a homing beacon to her brother but and insight into his actual state of mind and being.

 

 

She felt his anger and his frustration, and it slowly bled into her like the dripping of tap water.

 

 

One night she woke up to find him gone from their tent. She got up, grabbed her sword, and in less than a minute the portal was made.

 

 

 

 

_2_

 

 

The second bond began with a touch.

 

 

Summer Rose had a dancer’s body. She was small and lithe, with little musculature except for her shoulders and upper arms. When Raven had first met Summer, she had assumed her weak and undeserving of the title of leadership. Their first year as teammates was filled with passive-aggressive taunting and constant disagreements, though that could have been said for anyone in Team STRQ that year.

 

 

Summer Rose also had her father’s hands, a blacksmith’s hand. Square palms with short rounded fingers which were decorated in callouses from where her fingers wrapped around the string of her bow, or her hand clenched tightly around its grip. Callouses weren’t abnormal in their chosen profession, but on Summer they were the one thing that seemed dichotomous to her entire nature. That the girl with the quiet demeanour and shy eyes hidden behind the hood of her cloak could have a warrior’s hands.

 

 

Raven doesn’t know why she remember’s this particular touch compared to all the others she has shared. The touch of a friend’s comforting hand on one’s shoulder should not be particularly revolutionary or memorable. Perhaps it was the utter surprise that came with the moment. Perhaps it spoke to something about Raven’s upbringing.

 

 

Either way, she remembers the moment with total clarity.

 

 

It was the day before their second year at Beacon. They sat at the top of a well-loved cliff overlooking the forest on Patch, a decent walking distance from the Xiao Long family household. It was a new beginning, a day to look back at the mistakes of the past year (one, in particular, had scarred Raven for the rest of her life) and fix them.

 

 

It started with a confession, continued with a story, and ended with a prolonged question and answer session that last until the sun was just barely peeking over the horizon, casting the trees below them in the shadow of the cliff. Afterwards, both twins waited in silence. For something, they didn’t really know what. Rejection. Fear. Anger.

 

 

It said a lot about Summer that she could look at them with the quirk of a smile on her face and a tear that was welling in the corner of her eye. That she could crawl over to the twins and kneel in front of them with nothing but empathy. That her rough hands could hold nothing but softness when she placed one on each of their shoulders.

 

 

For Raven, it felt like time had come to a halt. Like a punch to the gut or a strike on the cheek, the forging of the bond was intense and an utter surprise. It was indescribable, a strange painful euphoria that sent a headache straight through her skull but ultimately left her feeling warm and comfortable as the bond situated itself along with the one she had to her brother.

 

 

When she opened her eyes, silver eyes stared into her own and identical tears fell down the cheeks of two girls who couldn’t have been more different.

 

 

 

 

_3_

 

 

The third bond began with a kiss.

 

 

And it wasn’t the first kiss (that would have been way too similar to the plot of Summer’s favourite romance novels), or the second, or the third, or even the fourth. It was somewhere down the line where Raven stopped counting when counting had begun to feel foolish, as if she was just waiting for had she had with Tai to suddenly come to a roaring halt.

 

 

She had wondered for a while if Tai was worried that she hadn’t created a bond with him yet. He had asked her one day, and she told him the truth. That the bonds she made with people seemed to be neither voluntary nor random, and the catalyst of their formation remained unknown to her. The bond she had with her brother had been there her entire life. Her bond with Summer was an outlier of one and left her with more questions than answers.

 

 

Tai never asked again. Perhaps he was content with her reply and was happy to wait for the day to come if it ever came at all. Perhaps he felt that their relationship would one day end, and the absence of a bond was just a precursor to that fact.

 

 

The opposite ended up happening.

 

 

It had been an innocuous occasion. A lazy Sunday in the second semester of their third year at Beacon, when the certain world-shattering information wouldn’t be revealed for another few weeks and everything was simpler because of it. When the most important thing in her life was the essay due the following day. She had spent the day editing it, reading her words out to Tai so he could offer suggestions from where he was laid out on his bed. Summer and Qrow were at the library, something they had done every weekend since her relationship with Tai had begun.

 

 

By her ninth revision, he had begun to protest, teased her until she got away from her desk and laid down next to him. He wrapped his arms around her body. One of his hands crept its way under the fabric of her tank top to rest against the scars on her stomach. His face burrowed into the mess of her hair and she couldn’t help but chuckle when his breath tickled against the shell of her ear. She turned her head to face him, and he automatically pecked her on the lips.

 

 

Unlike the last, the forging of the bond was simple and uncomplicated. It felt like the second before sleep, when one’s muscles are relaxed and their mind is clear.

 

 

With one final exhale the bond solidified in her mind next to Qrow’s and Summer’s, and the future felt a little less uncertain.

 

 

 

 

_4_

 

 

The fourth bond began with a tear.

 

 

She had never been able to pinpoint exactly which tear it was but to be fair, there had been a lot of tears in the days leading up to and after the birth of her daughter.

 

 

There had also been many tears _during_ the birth of her daughter.

 

 

She spent seventeen hours in the hospital, groaning in pain. Tai was at her right, bracing himself as she clenched his hand within her whenever a particularly difficult contraction wracked her body. Summer sat her left, alternating between feeding her ice chips, wiping the sweat from her brow, and repeating the same four encouraging phrases over and over again.

 

 

Her brother was in the waiting room being an ass.

 

 

She hadn’t even realised the bond had been created until a couple of days after the fact when she had finally been able to squeeze in a nap on the couch between Yang’s fits of cries. Her daughter was upstairs in her crib, and the baby monitor was sitting on the coffee table when Raven suddenly realised she didn’t really need the baby monitor to tell when Yang was about to get upset.

 

 

Before the monitor had even gone off she had awoken from the nap and was halfway up the stairs. Yang’s cries could be heard from down the hallway. She was in her mother’s arms in seconds and as she looked up into Raven’s eyes, fixated on them like a trance, Raven began to feel it. An infant’s happiness; underdeveloped and overwhelming, yet pure and absolute. It was unequivocally directed at her.

 

 

It didn’t take long for that to change.

 

 

 

 

_5_

 

The fifth bond began with a hug.

 

 

It had been seven years since her last bond was made. Three years since her first bond was broken and she had stopped meditating on them to the point where they had gone stale in her mind. She no longer felt Qrow’s frustration, or Tai’s love, or Yang’s happiness. Summer’s empathy had been torn away from her and wasn’t coming back no matter what she did.

 

 

She told herself that there were other things to focus on. Her tribe needed her to lead them, and she took the responsibility with pride.

 

 

It was a routine raid on a village. Nothing too difficult, until a seventeen-year-old girl wielding the elements without any Dust stepped into the square and messed everything up. She knocked out two-thirds of Raven’s men before they were able to subdue her and bring her back to the camp before Grimm arrived.

 

 

Raven sat by her side until she woke up, scared and shivering with a hand on the trigger of her powers. Raven gave her some stew and earned her trust, and she slowly began to tell her story. Her name was Vernal, the new maiden of spring, and she inherited her powers from her estranged mother two years ago, although she hadn’t known that particular fact until recently.

 

 

She asked Raven if she would make her go back. To Haven and Lionheart and Ozpin and the fight.

 

 

Raven said she could as she wished, and the girl had suddenly hugged her. Raven did not return the embrace as the bond forged in her head like the gentle pop of a bubble.

 

 

Little did the girl know was that Raven was once chosen to take her place.

 

 

 

 

_+1_

 

 

The first bond broke with a scream.

 

 

Her scream, to clarify. Her toe-curling, vocal chord shredding-scream as she ran through the portal only seconds too late to see her brother’s broken body curled on the ground. Summer Rose kneeled above him, the clawed-like hand of her murderer still embedded in her chest, covered in her blood. He turned to attack Raven, leaving Summer to fall to the ground. Dead.

 

 

That’s when she screamed.

 

 

The fight the man had with Summer and Qrow beforehand seemed to have resulted in the loss of his arm. Raven cut off the other one for good measure and left him for dead.

 

 

For the first few days, it felt like insanity, like a piece of herself had been torn from where she clutched it in her hands. She had grown used to the bonds in her head. She had even continued to meditate on Summer’s and Qrow’s every once in awhile. Which is why she had known they were in trouble in the first place. It was also probably why it hurt so much as well.

 

 

She stumbled through the forests of Anima without direction or purpose. She didn’t know where the portal had dropped her off, or where it was in relation to the tribe. There was no way to create a portal back to them either. She travelled until she finally hit a village in the middle of nowhere, exhausted and malnourished.

 

 

She arrived back at the tribe three weeks after the fact. They asked her where she had gone and she answered with a glare that sent them away.

 

 

She allowed the bonds that remained her mind wither away to scattered dust. So that what happened that day would not happen again.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there goes _that_ headcanon out the window. Wave at it as it goes hurtling to the ground.
> 
> Sigh.
> 
> So Raven can't see the future. Unfortunately (HAH). I find it kinda... simple that her semblance is just the portal thing. But Yang did mention something about _bonds_ being made so I'm allowing myself to play with that. Hence, this chapter. Roosterteeth can tear the whole, "she can feel the emotions/well-being of the people she's bonded to" out of my cold dead hands. There has to be something that made this bitch bearable when she went to Beacon. If she won't have empathy, then Summer Rose will force empathy upon her.
> 
> And then take it away when she dies.
> 
> I also find it incredibly intriguing that Qrow is a person that likes being close to people, yet his Semblance forces him to stay away, and that Raven doesn't seem to like people, yet her Semblance forces her to create a relationship with someone to function at its best performance.
> 
> Finally, with this whole portal thing wouldn't it make sense that she and her brother were partners at school? Like as soon as she hit the ground, she could just create a portal to him and tadaa, partners. Although it would also be pretty funny if she landed, looked up and tai was just right in front of her holding out a hand to help her up.


	16. spring

She trudges up a hill into consciousness, slowly but surely, exhaustion weaved into each step of waking. Her head hurts like it always does a long day after training. The bed she’s on is as comfortable as the one in her dorm room and she finds herself burrowing closer under the soft covers, hoping that perhaps she can get a few more hours of sleep before her minder knocks on her door and she has to go back to training.

 

The room smells like faintly burning incense and a fresh pot of green tea. A light breeze tickles the side of her cheek. And she realizes that she is most certainly _not_ in her single dorm room at Haven Academy.

 

Instinct compels her to throw off her covers. The spark of static electricity runs along her skin, bringing each hair at end as she summons a simple bolt of lightning in the palm of her hand. Her sleep-blurred vision clears as her eyes adjust to the dark surroundings.

 

The cave is decorated quite opulently compared to its rugged appearance as a living space. It’s lit up with dozens of burning candles. Plush cushions and fancy rugs adorn the cold rocky floor. A large wooden chest sits in the corner. Next to it is a table that sits under a map of Remnant hung on the wall. On top of the table is a weapon stand, empty.

 

The weapon it probably holds is attached to the waist of a woman, sitting only a couple of feet away from her with a blue teacup and matching saucer in her hands.

 

“You’ve awoken.” She states before taking a sip.

 

Vernal keeps the lightning in the palm of her hand. Her heart pounds against her chest as her fingers begin to twitch with the feeling of the electricity needing to be discharged.

 

“I had hoped I timed it right. Green tea is difficult to brew properly, too hot and you burn the leaves. Too cold and… well, what do you think?” The woman nods to a teacup that’s right next to Vernal’s bedside. It’s similar to the one she holds in her hands.

 

“What do you _want_ from me?” Vernal asks. She still hasn’t dispelled the lightning. It’s just beginning to sting.

 

The woman shrugs her shoulders, “I felt bad for knocking you out, thought it would be more pleasant for you to recover here rather than the village that was just razed to the ground, though if you don’t _like_ my hospitality you can just leave.” She quirks her head toward the mouth of the cave, indicating the exit.

 

“I’m not your prisoner?”

 

She laughs under her breath, “You destroyed nearly two-thirds of my men. I highly doubt we could keep you here if you didn’t want it.” Her eyes flick up to stare at Vernal. She looks similar somehow, the shape of her nose of the thinness of her lips. Her eyes are an interesting shade of red. They look like blood in the dim light of the burning candles.

 

There’s something that is unsaid in her words. She knows.

 

“You know who I am, then?”

 

A familiar quirk appears at the corner of her lips, “I know _what_ you are. You’ve yet to introduce yourself.”

 

Vernal sighs and the lightning disperses. She relaxes her shoulders, hunching over herself as she tries to still her beating heart. A voice in her mind tells her to fight. Tells her to shout and scream and kick until she’s as far away from this place as possible. But this woman doesn’t seem to want to hurt her.

 

Her tutors always tell her to never let her guard down, but it’s exhausting to have had it up for as long as she has. She picks up the teacup and takes a sip. It’s just starting to cool down, not as hot as she would like it but it’s been steeped for the correct amount of time, “My name is Vernal. I am the maiden of spring.”

 

She’s not supposed to say it. But it feels like a weight off her shoulders to finally say it aloud.

 

“Greetings Vernal,” the woman nods her head, “I am Raven Branwen.”

 

So _that’s_ where Vernal recognises her, “You’re Qrow’s sister.”

 

She quirks an eyebrow, “You’ve met my brother.”

 

“He was the one who… found me. I liked him. He made me laugh,” Vernal nods and takes another sip of green tea. It suddenly becomes very easy to trust Raven, even with what little Vernal remembers of her brother.

 

“He tends to do that.” Raven agrees. Her tea is done, she sets the cup and saucer down in front of her. Vernal moves to mirror her, but a glare from Raven tells her to keep drinking. The cave descends into silence. Wind whistles outside. She can hear the sound of waves. They must be close to the water.

 

“How old are you, Vernal?”

 

“Sixteen.”

 

“And what was a sixteen-year-old girl with magical powers doing so far away from her ivory tower?”

 

Her breath catches in her throat. Raven is too perceptive for Vernal’s comfort, “I needed a vacation.”

 

“And did Ozpin approve of your vacation?” Raven asks, leaning forward. The light catches her eyes, and Vernal can’t help but shrink a little under her gaze.

 

“If you’re going to take me back, you should just knock me out again,” Vernal threatens, putting down her empty teacup so it clatters against the stone ground. The burning candles flare ominously, making Raven jolt in her seat. There is a flicker of fear that crosses her blank face. It quickly disappears.

 

“Do you want to go back?” Raven asks.

 

Vernal is taken aback, “No.”

 

“Then I won’t,” Raven shrugs her shoulders.

 

And apparently, that’s the end of the conversation. Raven gets up from her seat, collects the teacups, and walks toward the mouth of the cave. The sheath of her weapon swings at her side as she moves.

 

“What am I supposed to do?” Vernal shouts at her.

 

“What you want.”

 

 

 

What she wants right now is a warm place to sleep and a meal three times a day, and Raven delivers. Vernal doesn’t want to leave the cave, so Raven brings her meals to her. It’s nothing fancy, simple fare like stew and bread and grilled vegetables. The only seasoning Raven seems to have is salt and pepper, but everything is warm and filling. They don’t talk much when they eat, each one waiting for the other to make the first move.

 

By the third day, she begins to explore her newfound surroundings. There isn’t much to snoop through except the chest in the corner. The lid is heavy to lift, and a cloud of dust puffs into the air when she finally pries it open. She coughs, waving a hand in front of her face. A small gust of wind is conjured from the motion and whirls throughout the cave, snuffing out a couple of the burning candles.

 

The items in the chest are non-descript and offer little to no insight into her host. They seem to be nick-nacks mostly, random things that mean nothing. There are a couple scraps of fabric, red and white, that have been sewn together with black thread. A jewellery box filled with various rings and necklaces, most of them seem to be made of silver or platinum. She pockets a couple of the rings. There’s a photo of Raven and three others, one of which is Qrow. It’s been pushed to the side of the chest, decorated with several creases and smudges. It hasn’t been taken of very well.

 

She searches through everything until she hits the bottom of the chest, where she finds three books. Two are leather-bound. They’re textbooks, _Pre-War History of Remnant and its Importance to Modern Day Society_ and _Grimm: An Instructional Guide on How to Identify and Dispose_. She opens both of them to find an envelope pasted inside the front cover that reads _Property of Beacon Library_ is bright red capital letters. The other book is an old romance paperback novel. It’s well-worn. The spine is so creased she can barely read its title. There are pages falling out, and the pages have been dogeared so often that they are now stuck that way.

 

She puts the other books away and settles down on the bed with the romance novel. It’s sappy, poorly written, and the ending can be seen from a mile away, but somehow Vernal finds it utterly engaging. She starts again from the beginning when Raven walks in with dinner. Vernal smells the large pot of stew before Raven greets her.

 

“I see you’ve been snooping,” She remarks, kneeling on one of the pillows on the floor. She scoops a portion of the stew into two ceramic bowls. One has a chip in its rim. Raven gives Vernal the one that doesn’t.

 

“You didn’t tell me not to,” Vernal replies, smirking as she takes a bite.

 

Raven mirrors it, “No.”

 

The past few meals have all been eaten in silence. Vernal is fine with that, and Raven seems to enjoy it.

 

But the chest in the corner of the room raised questions, “You went to Beacon, right?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“And your brother. He works for Ozpin.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Why don’t you?”

 

Raven’s quiet. She stays quiet for another five minutes until she finished her stew. When she’s done she rests her chin on her folded hands, “What did Ozpin tell you, when you were in his care?”

 

“I know about Salem, and the other maidens, and his… condition.”

 

“Impressive. More than what I learned at first, I had to figure out most of it for myself.”

 

“When did you leave?”

 

“Seven years ago.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Why did you?” Raven asked.

 

And suddenly the conversation was redirected to her. No doubt Raven’s plan from the beginning. She set down her bowl in front of her, folding her now-empty hands in her lap, “I _wanted_ to help. When they told me… it felt _right_ to help.” She looked up to Raven, who nodded for her to continue.

 

She took a quick breath, “I can do… _so_ much. I can call lightning to the palm of my hand, and control fire. I could freeze a person whole with the tip of my finger. But I can’t… I can’t…” Her breath stops in her throat and she has to take a second. Because she hasn’t told _anyone_ about this. The words have yet to pass through her lips. But something about the woman sitting across from her makes Vernal want to confess.

 

Maybe it’s because she _knows_ Raven will understand.

 

“I can’t die for him. Not like my mother did.” She says with the release of a breath. Her hands are shaking as she clenches them into fists, knuckles turning white from the strain. A tear falls down her cheek. It feels good to say.

 

“They didn’t tell you when they found you, did they?” Raven guesses as Vernal begins to calm down. She shakes her head no.

 

“When did you find out?” Raven asks.

 

“About a month ago.”

 

“And then you left.”

 

Vernal nods.

 

Raven offers no platitudes, pity, or empathy. She is silent as she collects the two bowls and her pot, just like she had when they previously had meals together.

 

“Raven?”

 

“Mhm.”

 

“Can I stay here?”

 

“Do you _want_ to stay here?”

 

She throws her arms around Raven’s neck in an awkward hug. Raven doesn’t return the embrace, glued to the spot like a marble statue. It feels perfect.

 

 

 

She leaves the cave for the first time the next day. What she thought was a single cave in the middle of nowhere is actually a system of caves, carved into the face of a cliff. Steps and walkways travel between each cavern, each one barely a couple feet wide.

 

There are also people. Vernal thought there were people, but there are more people than she thought there was. They travel along the walkways single file, passing by her without a second glance. They all have something to do, and she’s in the way but they don’t care.

 

She figures the best way to go is up.

 

At the top of the cliff is a clearing surrounded by a wall made of chopped down trees. A fire sits off to the side, tended to by two men and a woman who appears to be preparing for the next meal. On the opposite side of the clearing is a crowd of people, cheering and swearing. She naturally wanders over to see what the commotion is about, pushing her smaller stature through the throngs of shouting people to see two people fighting at the centre. Each one wields a makeshift sword, badly crafted and held together with dreams and duct tape.

 

At the top of the ring, she manages to spot Raven sitting cross-legged on the ground. Vernal can’t see her face - it’s covered by a bone-white mask with red markings - but she seems to be judging the proceedings.

 

The two people in the ring - a man and a woman - strike at each other, grunting with each thrust of their swords. She’s at least a foot smaller than him, but she’s faster as well. The man has blood dripping from his nose. The woman’s forehead has been cut open. They’re both visibly sweating in the summer heat.

 

Suddenly the woman lands a hit against the man that makes him lose his balance. In a blink of an eye he’s on his back, then she has a foot to his sternum, the blade pressed against his cheek so that it drew blood. Cries of joy and disappointment echo through the clearing until Raven lifts a single hand and everyone goes quiet. A woman with speckled white hair who stands behind her leans down to Raven’s face, and Raven seems to whisper something in her ear.

 

Everyone remains quiet until the woman stands up to speak, “Sable joins the raiding party, Jet is demoted to third tier.”

 

The crowd’s reply is another loud cheer. From all around her, Vernal notices people exchange various trinkets with each other: a whetstone here, a piece of jewellery over there, a piece of wood carved into a bird.

 

“Do we have another challenger?” The woman shouts over the crowd, and everyone immediately goes silent. Nobody steps forward.

 

Vernal looks toward Raven and jolts when she sees red eyes staring back at her from behind the mask. Raven lifts her hand once more and gains everyone’s attention. The woman behind her leans down.

 

Vernal watches as, in almost slow motion, Raven lifts her hand to point straight at Vernal. Suddenly everyone’s gaze shifts to her.

 

“Our leader has requested that Sable fights Vernal.” The woman says.

 

Her heart is beating heavily in her chest, but Vernal puts on a good show. She squares her shoulders, holds her head up high, and clenches her hands as she walks into the ring, so the no one will see how they’re shaking.

 

Across the ring, Sable is already in position. Vernal barely has another second to raise her fists before she attacks and Vernal is suddenly put on the defensive with no armour and no weapon. She just has enough time to raise her Aura on her palms, blocking Sable’s first strike towards her head.

 

One. Two. Three. Four. With every strike, Vernal is pushed back, and she struggles to place her feet in the correct spot. The voices of her combat tutors appear in the back of her head, reminding her to close any openings that could be used against her and watch for any openings of her own.

 

Suddenly one appears, Sable rears back for a stronger attack and it leaves enough time for Vernal to conjure a powerful gust of wind, pushing Sable back several feet. Vernal than brings a hand to the ground and wills it to freeze, a sheet of ice forming from in fingertips and spreading to Sable, encasing her entire foot in ice.

 

The crowd falls silent as Sable panics and Vernal turns the tide. Her first punch hits Sable right in the face, no doubt gifting her with a brand her black eye. The next strike is a kick to the abdomen, and Sable is knocked back once more.

 

The crowd erupts in cheers, hollers, and whoops. Vernal’s heart beats in tandem with them, not from fear or embarrassment, but from adrenaline. She smirks and turns toward Raven, expecting to see some sort of reaction from her.

 

Another of her tutor’s lessons flash through her mind: _never turn your back to your opponent_.

 

Something blunt hits her in the back of the head.

 

She falls to the ground.

 

 

 

When she wakes up, she’s still on the ground. It’s cold and hard, and nothing like the bed she’s been sleeping for the past couple of days. She opens her eyes to find that she’s not in her usual cave anymore either. This cave is plain and unadorned. There’s a person with her. Vernal recognises her as the woman that stood behind Raven during the fights.

 

“Rise and shine, kid,” she says. Her voice sounds like she’s just woken up.

 

“Who’re you?” Vernal mumbles, wincing as sharp pain threads itself through the back of her next and up her skull, right where she was hit.

 

“Ashe. I’m Raven’s second. She’s assigned you to work under me for the time being. Follow.” She gets and moves to leave. Vernal takes a second to realise she’s supposed to follow her.

 

“Wha’?” She asks as she exits the cave, bringing up a hand to block the sun from entering her eyes. The cave they exited is closer to the water. Violent waves crash against the side of the cliff only a couple feet below them. Vernal tastes salt on her tongue as she breathes.

 

“The tribe is hierarchical,” Ashe shouts back at Vernal over the sound of the waves, leading her up the various walkways that line the cliffside, “You’re new. You’re at the bottom and you work your way up to the top.

 

“How?”

 

“You do one of two things: you impress me, or you impress Raven.”

 

“Like the fights? From yesterday.”

 

“Right. You impress her enough, you join the raiding party. Otherwise, you stay here.”

 

“Raiding party?”

 

Ashe stops in tracks and turns around to face Vernal, “We’re bandits, kid. How do you _think_ we survive out here?”

 

Vernal remains silent, her mind moving quickly.

 

“And if you wanna leave. You can,” Ashe says, and then walks away.

 

Vernal takes a second and then follows anyways.

 

 

 

There is nothing easy about living with the tribe. Every day is hard work. Whether it’s tending to the fire, helping with food preparation, or going out on a hunt, Vernal returns to the cave she shares with Ashe each night exhausted.

 

She learns fast, quicker than she ever had to back at Haven. Ashe doesn’t like to stop and explain things or answer questions, so Vernal either has to pick things up at the pace she’s given, or get left behind.

 

That seems to be a very common theme here.

 

After a few days following Ashe, Vernal figures out that if Raven is the leader of the tribe, that Ashe is very much her right hand. She assigns jobs to people, keeps track of supplies, and basically does anything that Raven tells her to. Vernal also figures out that no one else except Ashe actually gets to speak to Raven.

 

The leader of the tribe is very much an enigma to those she leads. Many of them seem to have only been around for a couple months, and the theories about the mysterious woman who they follow range from the maybe true to the absolutely ridiculous.

 

“She’s terribly disfigured, s’why she wears the mask.”

 

“Been here since she was a baby. They stole her from her mother’s arms.”

 

Vernal thinks the last one might be true, but is unsure. There are no kids in the tribe, and she seems to be the youngest one there.

 

 

 

The first raid she witnesses occurs a month after she joins. Raven and a group of her followers leave for five days and return with wagons full of food, wine, and various bits and pieces. They’re welcomed back like heroes, a large group of people rushing to the top of the cliff as word of their return is passed down the cliffside. The food is given to the cooks to prepare, the wine flows easily, and the rest is given to Ashe and Vernal to distribute amongst everyone else.

 

There are clothes, various pieces of armour, a small variety of weaponry, and little trinkets such as rings, necklaces, and other valuables. A gorgeous and no doubt expensive hand-woven rug is rolled up in one of the wagons, and Ashe immediately tells Vernal to bring it to Raven’s cave.

 

Being at the top of the hierarchy has its privileges.

 

Vernal chooses a small dagger to hang at her hip and a sewing kit. They are hers and no one else’s.

 

 

 

Once a month, she’s put on night guard duty. It’s boring, exhausting, and all around just plain shitty. She sits at the fire pit and looks into the burning embers all evening, dagger clenched tightly in her hand.

 

Her reward is the morning dawn. The sun rises over the never-ending ocean in various shades of purples and pinks, slowly warming her up as it peaks over the horizon. She closes her straining eyes, trying to not step over the precipice of sleep as she enjoyed the peaceful moment.

 

“It is quite beautiful,” she hears Raven’s voice and is startled. She opens her eyes to see the woman kneeling beside her, drinking from a teacup.

 

“Um, yes.” Vernal replies, unsure of how she is supposed to speak to her.

 

“How are you enjoying your stay with us, Vernal?”

 

“It’s been… fine.

 

“And when do you think you’ll be returning to Haven?”

 

The question feels like a punch to the gut, “I… don’t know.”

 

“Do you _want_ to return?”

 

She doesn’t know how to answer that.

 

“Because I can bring you back. Whenever you want.”

 

“Not now. I want to stay just a little longer.”

 

There’s a smirk at the corner of Raven’s mouth, “Very well.”

 

She stands up and walks away, and Vernal finds she becomes more confused about Raven the more she talks to her.

 

 

 

The Grimm disturb the little world she’s made for herself a couple weeks later. It starts with a dispute in the fighting pit, greater than just a regular scuffle to determine hierarchy. Someone declares another person a thief, and it blows out of proportion. Raven isn’t there to control it, and Ashe doesn’t have the same amount of authority Raven has to prevent it from getting out of hand. By the time Raven appears from wherever she was to stop the fight, several others had been brought into it.

 

The Grimm attack without warning. The tribe couldn’t prepare. Within seconds everything succumbs into chaos.

 

And Vernal somehow finds herself helpless in the face of it.

 

She calls lightning to her hands, but her powers are like a muscle and she hasn’t been working them. Her bolts are weak, all flash with no punch to them. The fray of Ursa, Beowolves, and Creeps is too chaotic for her, and she finds herself having to focus her powers even harder than she’s used so that she doesn’t hurt anyone else.

 

It’s Raven, Ashe, and the raiding party who do most of the work. The truth about the tribe is that even though most of them know how to fight, the Grimm are just too much for those that choose to stay their rank rather than fighting their way up. The ones who support the tribe, who cook and gather and fish and build, are the ones to die first. A Beowolf slashes its claws and a person falls to their knees in front of her, clutching at their bleeding neck. Vernal stands frozen to the spot. She’s never seen this much slaughter before.

 

After all the Grimm are killed, twenty-three people are dead. Almost a quarter of the tribe. Those who remain aren’t even given time to mourn over their bodies. Raven and Ashe direct everyone to pack up, take only as much as they can carry, and they set off.

 

They never return to the cliffside again. As they set off into the dark, Vernal can’t help but feel as if she’s leaving home behind.

 

 

 

They live as nomads for two and a half tense and fearful weeks, but emotions must be forgotten if they are to survive. Instead of letting fear and stress rule her, Vernal develops insomnia. She’s not alone.

 

Raven’s chest is the biggest thing to survive the attack. Her tea set apparently survived as well. The first night when Vernal can’t sleep, she finds Raven sitting at the fire with her kettle on the fire.

 

“I’m sorry,” she greets Raven as she sits on the other side of the fire, listening to the water boil.

 

“You should be,” Raven replies, her eyes looking up to Vernal. There’s disappointment there.

 

“I-I tried to-”

 

“No. You. Didn’t.”

 

“But-”

 

“Vernal!” Raven snaps.

 

She falls silent. The water finishes boiling and Raven takes her kettle off the fire, putting it off to the side to cool.

 

“Vernal, who do you consider your family?” Raven asks.

 

“What?”

 

“My brother and I tend to disagree on the matter. I want to hear what you think.”

 

“Well, my dad I guess. And my little brother.”

 

“Is that it?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Mhm,” Raven is silent as she pours water into her cup, “I grew up with my brother, but we did not grow up with our parents. When I was a child the tribe was under a very different type of leadership. We were taken as infants after our parents were killed in a raid.”

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

Raven shrugs her shoulder, “It doesn’t matter. The past is long gone, and that leader is now dead. My point is that I did not grow up with two parents, but many. And even though I had a twin brother, I considered many others my siblings, like Ashe.”

 

No wonder they were so close, Vernal thought to herself.

 

“For me, family is about loyalty. And loyalty is a two-way street. I expect my tribe to be loyal to me. I expect them to follow my lead and to heed my decisions. But they also expect something from me. They expect me to protect them, to lead them in a direction that is beneficial for us all, and to tell them the truth because, without truth, loyalty is pointless. At that point, it crosses the line from loyalty and becomes blind faith. My brother says otherwise.”

 

She takes a sip of her tea and continues, returning her gaze to Vernal.

 

“I have allowed you to stay here because I believed you to be standing on the precipice of a choice: whether to return to Haven to continue your training as the Spring Maiden, or to stay here with us. Am I wrong?”

 

“No.”

 

“I will not prevent you from leaving if you feel you must. You’ve just witnessed something truly horrible, there is no shame in wanting to return back to the relative safety of Ozpin and his followers. If you leave, all I ask is that you do not tell them about our location.”

 

“And if I stay?”

 

“Then I ask for your loyalty, and I promise that I’ll give mine in return.”

 

“And what does that mean, exactly?”

 

Raven puts down her teacup, “The tribe's true warriors are slowly dwindling. Many of people here don’t have what it takes to control their Aura, and only a couple have found their Semblance. Raids against the common folk are easy enough. It’s the Grimm that are the problem.”

 

“You want me to protect you.”

 

“Hah,” she laughs, a sharp and arrogant cackle, “ _I_ can protect myself, thank you. I want you to protect _them_ ,” Raven waves her hand to the tribe around her, sleeping on the ground in groups, almost piling on top of each other, “In return, I promise to train you to the best of my abilities. I promise to respect your wishes and freedoms. I promise to protect you from what or whoever, whether that be Salem, Ozpin, or otherwise. And, if you choose to leave, I promise to stay away no matter how difficult it may be.”

 

“Can I think about it?”

 

“You have until the day we make camp.” She stands up and walks away.

 

Vernal turns her head a second later to watch her leave. Raven’s already gone.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eh, this chapter is okay. It's not my favourite. I feel like I could have written more, but then I felt like I had already written to much. Ugh. This chapter was (at first) very much a way of trying to understand Raven's headspace from an outside perspective, in this case, Vernal. I don't know if I did it as well as I wanted to.
> 
> Apparently, my headcanon that Raven likes tea is the only one to have stuck. It's definitely amongst one of my favourite headcanons (for some odd reason) and I just really like that it's canon now.
> 
> My original theories about the tribe had to be reworked a bit based on what's been shown. My original headcanon of the tribe were a bunch of badasses that all wore Grimm masks and were each named after a different shade of black, grey, or white. Ashe is the only one to survive from that headcanon. New headcanon is that all of those badasses were like Raven and Qrow, picked up as infants, and have since died or left. Raven doesn't do the whole stealing children from their parents thing anymore, so all new recruits are basically regular people who have been picked up along the way. If RWBY has shown us anything, it's that for you to be a true badass you basically have to have been fighting and training since you were a kid. Since most of Raven's tribe haven't done that, they kinda suck.


	17. seasons

_I always thought that Winter was for lovers_

_'Cause when else is a body's warmth so warm_

_Underneath my clothes your hands are freezing but I_

_Don't say a word_

 

She sets Yang down in the crib, the 6-month-old infant’s eyes battling against the spell of tiredness. Her little eyelashes drift slowly closed as she grasps Summer’s index finger in her hand. Summer waits until she thinks the baby has fallen asleep and slowly lifts her hand from the little girl. She backs away out of the bedroom door, smiling when she closes the door quiet enough so Yang doesn’t startle.

 

Heavy snowflakes patter against the sloped roof of the cabin. There’s a fire crackling in the fireplace downstairs, and a pot of lamb stew slowly steaming away on the stove in the kitchen. Winter on Patch is best combated with warm sweaters, blankets, and cocoa. The Xiao Long household had always been a place they used to retreat to during break from the academy. Tai’s Gran used to spoil them, her and the twins especially. She made large meals, knitted sweaters and blankets, and reminded them to put their mittens on when they went out together. The cabin was so full of life then. Now, however, it is decidedly not.

 

She can’t help but feel that this isn’t where she wants to be right now. Trapped in a cabin in the woods, a twenty minute walk away from the nearest town, taking care of a baby that’s not hers. All because a woman she considered her best friend left with no reason or rhyme, and left behind no explanation as to why she did it.

 

Summer startles at a noise coming from the baby monitor on the coffee table, settling down when Yang doesn’t start to cry. She lets out a breath she forgot she was holding, then turns on the tv, keeping the volume low. She then reaches over the couch arm into a wicker basket, pulling out a ball of bright white yarn and knitting needles. She lays the just-started blanket over her legs and gets to work, the chattering of the tv droning on in the background.

 

She doesn’t really know why she started to take up knitting. When the chill of autumn set in a couple months ago, it had seemed a good idea. She wasn’t particularly good at it either, the only things she had made being several different blankets that could now be found in various places throughout the house.

 

She hears the truck drive up to the cabin outside. She hears the car-door slam, footsteps on the porch, but no one comes inside.

 

She waits for him for ten minutes, then sighs as she puts her knitting down her vaults herself over the back of the couch, grabbing the blanket resting on in as she does. She wraps it tightly around her shoulders and puts her boots on, but doesn’t bother tying the laces. She peaks her head out the front door, grimacing as the chill hits her cheek. Tai sits on the porch swing, pushing it back and forth with his feet. It creaks with each push. He’s not wearing any mittens.

 

“How did it go?” She asks, trying to put a smile on her face.

 

Tai doesn’t turn to look at her as she sits down beside him. The swing moans at the extra weight, “Fine. Went to see Gran.”

 

“And how was that?”

 

“She’s not very chatty these days.”

 

“Oh.”

 

When did it become so hard to talk to him? On their first day of Beacon, his good-natured chattering had been well-received by her, kept her calm as she began a new chapter in her life. It’s gone now. It’s been gone for months.

 

She’d always hated silence, but she’s beginning to think that she’s gotten used to it. Silence is easier than it used to be.

 

“How long do you think it takes to get used to somethin’?” He asks, staring down at his bare hands. They twitch in the cold, turning pale white. His hard-won calluses are beginning to fade, making his large hands softer.

 

“Wha’d’you mean?” She answers his question with her own.

 

“The first time you punch someone, your hand hurts. The second time you punch someone, your hand still hurts but now you’ve learned to expect it. At one point does your hand stop hurting? Tenth time? Hundredth? Thousandth?”

 

She gets the analogy, “I don’t know. I don’t punch people for a living,” It’s not something she would say. It’s something that Tai would say.

 

He chuckles, but there’s no humour to it. It’s sharp and dry and it just sounds so wrong coming from him, “Mom and Dad, I was what, six? When they died? That was hard. I remember it being hard and I remember thinking that since I got through that I could go through it again. People die, and I learned to expect it. Then there was Gran. And that was shitty and sudden and one second that one person who was there was just _gone_ and-”

 

He chokes up. Summer turns her head to look at him. His head is bowed, bangs needing to be trimmed covering his forehead and eyes but she can still see the tear falling down his cheek.

 

“And I thought that it was still going to be alright. Because I had _her_ and I had you and Qrow and people that were gone were being replaced that people who were there and it was all gonna be fine again. And then she-. She-”

 

He stops once more. He hasn’t been able to say it since that day.

 

“I have been through this shit four times now. At what point does it stop feeling like _this_.” He shouts to the barren forest. Several birds fly out from the trees, cawing loudly. Summer tries not to wince at the sound.

 

“Mom. Dad. Gran. Raven. _Qrow_.” He chokes out, clenching his fists in his lap. His hands are shivering now, whether from the cold or his anger she doesn’t know.

 

“Qrow’s coming back. He’s gonna find her, and he’s gonna come back.” She says like a mantra.

 

“She could come back whenever she fucking wants to. To any of us. He won’t find her if she doesn’t let him.” He replies.

 

They sit in silence, and she welcomes it. She can’t look at him anymore, his dour attitude infecting her with doubts about their friend. It’d be so easy to agree with him, to say that Qrow and Raven will never come back. Her mother’s voice pops up from her memories, reminding her to stay positive.

 

She sighs, “I don’t think this is like fighting, Tai. I don’t think you _can_ get used to this. I think it’ll always feel this way.”

 

His fists clench tighter, still shivering. Summer is a small woman, a full foot shorter that Tai. She can’t wrap her arms around him and make him warm. So she takes his hands, which are still larger than hers, and tucks them under her blanket, holding them against her body to warm them up. His chilled skin is separated from hers by a thin piece of cloth, and she sucks in a breath when his hands come into contact with the warm skin of her stomach but makes no complaint.

 

_But maybe it's the Spring that is for lovers_

_'Cause that is when the world comes out in bloom_

_In the light of all the lengthening days that still end too_

_Soon_

 

Spring in Patch melts the snow and brings the leaves back to the trees that surround their cabin in the woods. The grass grows bright green, and the smell of musty cabin is chased away as the sweet spring breeze flows freely through the open windows. Tai’s mood becomes more agreeable as the sun shows up more often. He cares for Yang, holds her and feeds her and makes weird faces. The baby giggles and babbles and claps her hands together. She’s so happy when her father is with her.

 

She sits at the kitchen table, papers, bills, and receipts spread out in front of as she taps the back of her pen on her forehead. Qrow sits across from her, trying to check her math to the best of his abilities. There are two glass tumblers placed on the table, each filled with a bit of cheap whiskey.

 

Qrow takes a sip, “Sunflower, you’re stressing.”

 

“I’m fine.”

 

“Your lip is bleeding and you haven’t noticed for the past five minutes. You’re stressing.”

 

She licks her lip, the sweet taste of blood coming to her tongue, “Fuck.”

 

She washes the taste down with a sip of whiskey. It burns as it goes down and she coughs at the strength of the alcohol. Qrow chuckles at the sight of her reaction and she wonders how he can drink the stuff at such a quick pace.

 

“How’re we doing?” He leans in closer and lowers his voice. He looks toward the living room. Tai is still enraptured by Yang, but neither of them wants him to overhear.

 

“We are doing,” she looks over her math, making sure it’s all correct, “okaaayyy. I think.”

 

“Okay?”

 

“Bills are paid. Groceries bought. Yang has everything a happy baby needs. But we don’t have a lot left.”

 

“I’ll start taking harder missions, that should make up the rest.”

 

“Qrow, you’re already giving us everything.”

 

He shrugs his shoulders, “S’fine. Don’t need much of it anyways. Better it goes to you guys and Yang.”

 

She smiles. He’s trying to be a good uncle, in any way he can, “Still, I would feel better if I wasn’t taking all of your money from you. Makes me feel like a bad friend.”

 

“You’ve been cooped up in this cabin for too long.”

 

“No I haven’t.”

 

“When the last time you left, for something other than groceries or errands. To train? For fun?”

 

She sees is point, and takes another sip of her drink in lieu of answering him directly. She finishes the rest of it in one swallow, and he laughs once more at the face she makes.

 

“Hey Tai!” He shouts into the other room.

 

Tai comes into the kitchen doorway, Yang in his arms, “Yeah?”

 

Qrow stretches his arms out, wiggling his fingers. “Gimme.”

 

Tai stares at him dumbfoundedly as he makes his way over to him, and carefully puts Yang in his arms. Qrow accepts her easily and the little girl screeches in his arms, reaching out to tug at a bit of hair that had fallen in his eyes.

 

“Alright’. You guys have three hours before I get tired of this.”

 

“For what?” Tai asks, still very confused.

 

“I dunno. Whatever you want. Go get smashed. Arrested. Throw yourself off a cliff if you feel you have to. Just get out of the house, Firecracker and I can hold the fort down for a bit. Can’t we?”

 

He looks to Yang, who babbles excitedly, “Co! Co! Co! Co!”

 

“Someone’s excited.” He smiles, looking over at his friends.

 

Summer doesn’t need anymore explanation. Within a second she’s run out of her chair and up the stairs, heading into her room. It only takes her a second to grab her cloak from her closet and throw it around her shoulders. Then she’s pulling her hard case out from under her bed, gazing in near-reverence at Delicate Thorn gathering dust from with its carrying case. She grabs it and runs back down the stairs.

 

Tai’s talking with Qrow in the kitchen as goes to the front door, searching through the coat closet for her running shoes. She sits down on the floor like a child, lacing them up.

 

“Summer, what’re you doing?” Tai walks into the living room, Qrow right behind him.

 

“ _I’m_ going on a hike. Join me if you like, I don’t give a shit.” She replies, standing up with her hands on her waist. She picks up her bow and quiver and puts them around her back, then exits through the front door, not bothering to close it behind her.

 

“Sumer! Wait up! Summer!”

 

Summer leads and Tai follows behind her. It takes thirty minutes to walk to their destination, to the cliff that overlooked the valley down below. They hadn’t been in a while, the last time being when the entire team was still together. Gods that felt like so long ago.

 

She and Tai don’t talk a lot. He sits at the edge of the cliff, dangling his legs in the air as she goes through target practice. A tree at the edge of the clearing has a bullseye etched into its bark, and a large hole marking the bullseye. She goes through the repetitive motion of drawing her bow, letting the arrow fire, and watching it hit the bullseye every time before she goes to retrieve it. She does this until her muscles begin to ache, and she feels a very different kind of tired from what she’s felt in months. A physical exhaustion, rather than emotional.

 

She joins Tai with a sigh and a stupid smile on her face. She leans back on her hands, looking out into the sunset,

 

“Beautiful,” she says, wistfully.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“It feels so good to get out of the house.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Are you just gonna agree with me for the rest of the night?”

 

“Probably.”

 

“About time,” She says, meaning it as a joke.

 

“Yeah,” He quiets.

 

Silence falls like it has been doing for the past few months. For once, he doesn’t leave it there, “Sum I’m- I just. have to say-. You’ve been so-”

 

He rambles, trying to find the right words. She smiles at him fondly.

 

“Just. Thank you.” He says, “You’ve been… nothing short of amazing since… While I’ve been a bit of an ass.”

 

“You were mourning. It was understandable.”

 

“Yeah, but you were too,” he says, regret in his voice, “I’m gonna make it up to you now. I called Signal a couple days ago. They want me to come back.”

 

“Tai, that’s fantastic!”

 

“Yeah,” he agrees once more, looking toward the horizon.

 

“You know, I think things are gonna start looking up for us,” Summer says, watching the blue sky descend into hues of purple and pink.

 

_But now I'm thinking Summer is for lovers_

_'Cause when else will we find the time to leave_

_Lay out in a field and watch our love growing and_

_Swaying in the breeze_

 

“Pic! Nic! Pic! Nic!” Yang shouts from the floor, clutching to Summer’s leg as she precariously stands on her own two feet.

 

“That’s right Yang, we’re going on a picnic. But I’m gonna need you to let go now, sweetie. Can you let go please?” She asks the little girl, wiggling her leg a bit.

 

Yang just held on tighter, “Ma!”

 

“Tai,” she shouts to the rest of the house, “Can you come grab your daughter for me?”

 

“Coming!” Tai shouted back from upstairs. She suddenly heard him come bounding down the stairs and into the kitchen, saving her leg from the clutches of an abnormally strong one-year-old.

 

“Thanks.” She said under her breath, walking over to the fridge to grab the fresh blueberries and raspberries she had bought at the farmer’s market the other day.

 

“Damn she’s hyper.” Tai remarked, holding a struggling Yang in his arms. Within seconds she was back on the ground, pulling herself to her feet by the seat of a chair. She reached her hands out to Tai’s leg, taking a wobbly step before she grasped onto it, looking up at her dad for approval.

 

“Hopefully this’ll wipe her out by the end of the day.”

 

“D’you think she knows it’s her birthday?”

 

They look down at the little girl on the floor, who’s looking back at them. A smile graces her face when she realises her parents' attention had finally returned to her and her accomplishment. She pushes off from Tai’s leg and takes two wobbly steps to Summer, falling to her hands on the third step.

 

Gods she’s cute, “I doubt it. Though I do think she knows that today is special, somehow.”

 

“C’mon, little dragon,” Tai says, grabbing yang from the floor. Summer checks to make sure she’s got everything packed, collects their picnic basket, and they set off.

 

There’s something about the cliff that keeps calling to them. Ever since that day in the spring, they go there whenever they can. Which really means that whenever Qrow is in town he’s put on babysitting duties so the two parents can take a break.

 

He complains every time, but he never really means it.

 

They take turns carrying Yang and the basket. Yang is energetic, she doesn’t like being held anymore, so their walk is made all the longer when Yang is put down on the ground so that she can walk a few steps, fall, and then be picked up again. It takes an hour to finally arrive at the cliff, the sun already high in the afternoon.

 

There’s something about living on an island that makes the sky seem bluer than it already it, which is only accentuated by the fact that no clouds could be seen in any direction. Tai keeps an eye on Yang as Summer sets up their lunch, laying out a cliche red-and-white checkered blanket on the grass. Yang sits on the ground, pulling up blades of grass and throwing it out in front of her. She’s wearing a sunhat that Summer got her for her birthday. It looks like a strawberry.

 

After Summer sets the food out, Tai brings Yang over and sits her down between him and Summer. Summer helps Yang with her food first, taking out a plastic separated plate, and grabbing a couple things from to give to the toddler to eat: the fresh berries, some cereal, and her sippy cup filled with apple juice. As soon as Yang was occupied, Summer than brought out the food she had made for her and Tai. There was a bowl of potato salad, sandwiches, more fresh fruit, and a dozen of her chocolate chip cookies.

 

They get about halfway through their meal before Yang gets fussy. Suddenly she’s leaning on their arms and shoulders, pulling herself to wobbly feet and standing between them. Tai stands up with her, holding her tiny hands within his large one as he guides her around the clearing, step by careful step. Yang’s never been afraid of falling over, and with her father helping her she quickly gains confidence to the point that she’s pulling at Tai’s hands, wanting to run before she can even walk a couple of steps by herself without falling.

 

The clearing is filled the happy cries and babbles of the toddler. Even with everything that happened in the past year, Summer was glad to see that Yang was a happy child. At least they got that part right.

 

And maybe she was happy too. And maybe Tai was as well.

 

“Can you walk over to Summer, Yang? Wanna try by yourself?”

 

“Sum-ma.” The toddler says, reaching her hand out to Summer. She stood on her own two legs.

 

“C’mere sweetie,” Summer encourages. Yang walks with one careful foot after the other, holding her arms out for balance. The distance was small, barely five feet, but when Yang finally reached Summer’s arms without falling over, the small accomplishment suddenly became blown out of proportions. Summer picked up Yang from under her arms, lifting her up in the air as Yang grinned a baby-toothed smile of triumph.

 

They spent the rest of their afternoon on the clifftop, amusing Yang until she tired herself out. She settled down from within her adoptive mother’s arms, eyes slowly drooping as she attempted and failed to fight against her exhaustion. Tai and Summer watch her, amused at her stubbornness.

 

“I can’t believe it’s been a year,” Tai says, almost wistfully.

 

“Me neither.”

 

“I haven’t managed to fuck it up.”

 

“We still have seventeen more years, I wouldn’t celebrate yet.”

 

“We?”

 

She pauses. She hadn’t meant to say that, even though it’s an issue that’s gone unspoken between them for a couple months now. She had originally stepped up to the plate on the assumption that everything was temporary: Raven had a history of miscommunication, at the time it felt likely that she needed space for a week or two and then she would return. Then a week turned into two turned into a month turned into the seasons passing by. And Summer was still here, taking care of a little girl that had become her own daughter without her even realising.

 

“We,” she repeats.

 

“So you’re gonna stick around?”

 

She brings her nose to Yang’s head, breathing in her scent as she tightens her arms around the little girl, “At this point, I don’t think I wanna leave.”

 

_But could it be the Fall that is for lovers?_

_'Cause that is when the leaves get tired of being_

_Green and then they turn into others that are very rarely_

_Seen_

 

She takes a weekend-long mission, by herself. It’s her first solo mission in over a year. She only takes it because Tai tells her to, pushes and pushes until it gets to the point that he has to take out a pad of paper, write out the pros and cons, and stick it passive-aggressively onto the fridge until she says yes.

 

The day before she leaves she writes her own list of things he needs to get done and pastes it on the fridge for him to find when he comes home from Signal.

 

The Friday she leaves, he takes a day off work. She leaves in the morning, hugging a just-awake Yang goodbye before she puts on her cloak and her backpack and goes on her way. It’s not a difficult mission, a simple search and destroy contract for a village just outside of Vale. She finds the pack of Beowolves, takes care of them with ease, and returns late Sunday night, a good sense of exhaustion settling in her bones.

 

“How was it?” Tai asks from the couch, grading papers as she plops herself next to him with a sigh. Yang’s not in sight, no doubt already asleep. She looks over to see him stupidly trying to hide an I-told-you-so grin on his face.

 

“It was a pretty good idea.” She relents.

 

“Good. Qrow can’t be the only one living the dream.”

 

“I thought you liked teaching?”

 

“The headmaster’s an asshole, the kids are shitheads, I honestly think I do more grading for Tawny than actual teaching, and yeah… I kinda do like it.”

 

“I’m sensing a but.”

 

He sighs, “I feel old, Sum.”

 

She chuckles, “Tai, you’re twenty-three.”

 

“I know, it’s stupid,” he laughs at himself, writing done a grade on the paper before grabbing another one, “I’m twenty-three years old. I have a kid, a steady well-paying job, a house, and a car and I’m twenty-three years old. I thought I’d be travelling around Remnant with you guys, acting like idiots, saving lives.”

 

“You can go on missions too, Tai. We could switch. Do an every-other-weekend kinda thing.”

 

“Nah,” he shrugs his shoulders, “Think I’d miss Yang too much.”

 

“Oh yeah? What’d you two get up to this weekend?”

 

“Took a walk. Ate cereal. She drew me a picture. I put it on the fridge.”

 

“What is it?”

 

“I think she was trying to say ‘dragon’. It’s a bunch of yellow squiggles with two black dots. She was very proud of herself. Kept on asking where you were, though.”

 

“Really? She missed me?”

 

“Had a damn near panic attack when you weren’t there for breakfast yesterday.”

 

“Awww, poor baby.”

 

“And how ‘bout you?”

 

“Me?”

 

“Yeah. Did’ya miss me? My fantastic leadership qualities? My baby-wrangling skills? My vivacious _wit_?”

 

“Oh yes, of course, oh wise one. How could I possibly survive without your guidance? I was hopeless without you.”

 

“Hah! Knew it.” She crosses her arms, leaning back on the couch so she can stretch her legs out on the coffee table, careful not to put her foot into one of Tai’s many stacks of paper. She closes her eyes, content to fall asleep right there to the sound of quietly rustling papers and Tai correcting grammar mistakes from under his breath. She unconsciously curls her body closer to his, resting her head on his shoulder.

 

“Hey Sum,” he asks after a couple of minutes, nudging her to see if she’s still awake.

 

“Hm?” She mumbles.

 

“Can I- Can I ask you something?”

 

“Uh-huh.” She’s just barely awake, but she can listen to his rambling if he really needs her to. Better make it quick though.

 

“Yang she… she keeps calling you mom. And I just want to let you know that that isn’t me or anything she just kinda started doing it. And… are you… okay with that?”

 

“Sure.”

 

“Really?”

 

“She’s mine.”

 

“Oh. Okay,” he pauses, she falls closer and closer to sleep, “And, um, are we…? What about…? Ah fuck I don’t know how to ask this.”

 

“Jus’ say’t.” She says, slurring her words as she digs closer into his shoulder.

 

She can feel him breathe, in and out. It’s heavy and rhythmic, like the tide slowly coming in. She could fall asleep to it. She is falling asleep to it.

 

“Summer, I think I’m falling in love with you.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh look at me, such a quick update. It's a wonder what procrastination for studying can do for creativity. 
> 
> The lyrics used for this one-shot are from the song Seasons by Said the Whale, and the whole reason that I'm posting this is that I made a playlist (yay). This is what I tend to listen to whenever I'm writing these characters. It's an hour and a half long, with five songs per person, though many of the songs could probably apply to all of them. I actually created it a couple months ago, and thought I'd give it to you guys.
> 
> Link is below if you wanna have a listen:
> 
> <https://open.spotify.com/user/cordsycords/playlist/6h7ohskfLVOajLp5OfVX9d>


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